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that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!”
Isaiah 14:4 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
  • BSB you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended!
  • NKJV that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: “How the oppressor has ceased, The golden city ceased!
  • NASB that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased, And how the onslaught has ceased!
  • NLT you will taunt the king of Babylon. You will say, “The mighty man has been destroyed. Yes, your insolence is ended.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

The freed people will taunt the fallen king of Babylon: 'How the oppressor has ceased!' God brings down the proud tyrant.

Overview

This begins a taunt-song (mashal) over the king of Babylon, marveling that the tyrant and 'golden city' have fallen. The mockery celebrates the end of oppression by divine justice. The downfall of this proud king becomes a pattern for the overthrow of every God-defying power that exalts itself.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 28

  • Isa 49:26I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
  • Jer 25:9–14behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
  • Rev 13:15–17It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn’t worship the image of the beast to be killed.
  • Rev 16:5–6I heard the angel of the waters saying, “You are righteous, who are and who were, you Holy One, because you have judged these things.
  • Isa 47:5“Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. For you shall no longer be called the mistress of kingdoms.
  • Hab 2:17For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of the animals, which made them afraid; because of men’s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to every city and to those who dwell in them.
  • Isa 45:2–3“I will go before you, and make the rough places smooth. I will break the doors of brass in pieces, and cut apart the bars of iron.
  • Jer 51:20–24“You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.
  • Isa 13:19Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
  • Jer 51:34–35“Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty vessel. He has, like a monster, swallowed me up. He has filled his mouth with my delicacies. He has cast me out.
  • Rev 18:5–8for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities.
  • Ezek 5:15So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes — I, Yahweh, have spoken it —
  • Lam 4:1How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
  • Isa 14:17who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”
  • 2 Chr 36:18All the vessels of God’s house, great and small, and the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
  • Jer 27:6–7Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him.
  • Hab 1:2–10Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you “Violence!” and will you not save?
  • Rev 17:6I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.
  • Jer 24:9I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.
  • Rev 18:16saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls!
  • Jer 50:22–23A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.
  • Isa 51:23and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”
  • Isa 14:6who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained.
  • Dan 2:38and wherever the children of men dwell, the animals of the field and the birds of the sky has he given into your hand, and has made you to rule over them all: you are the head of gold.
  • Hab 2:6–12Won’t all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not his, and who enriches himself by extortion! How long?’
  • Dan 7:19–25Then I desired to know the truth concerning the fourth animal, which was diverse from all of them, exceedingly terrible, whose teeth were of iron, and its nails of brass; which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet;
  • Rev 18:20“Rejoice over her, O heaven, you saints, apostles, and prophets; for God has judged your judgment on her.”
  • Isa 9:4For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 14:4YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 14:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.