Isaiah 14

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¹For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. ✦ ²Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors. ✦ ³It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, ✦ ⁴that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: “How the oppressor has ceased, The golden city ceased! ✦ ⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, The scepter of the rulers; ✦ ⁶He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke, He who ruled the nations in anger, Is persecuted and no one hinders. ✦ ⁷The whole earth is at rest and quiet; They break forth into singing. ✦ ⁸Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you, And the cedars of Lebanon, Saying, ‘Since you were cut down, No woodsman has come up against us.’ ✦ ⁹“Hellfrom beneath is excited about you, To meet you at your coming; It stirs up the dead for you, All the chief ones of the earth; It has raised up from their thrones All the kings of the nations. ✦ ¹⁰They all shall speak and say to you: ‘Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us? ✦ ¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, And the sound of your stringed instruments; The maggot is spread under you, And worms cover you.’ ✦ ¹²“Howyou are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! ✦ ¹³For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; ✦ ¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ ✦ ¹⁵Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit. ✦ ¹⁶“Those who see you will gaze at you, And consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms, ✦ ¹⁷Who made the world as a wilderness And destroyed its cities, Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’ ✦ ¹⁸“All the kings of the nations, All of them, sleep in glory, Everyone in his own house; ✦ ¹⁹But you are cast out of your grave Like an abominable branch, Like the garment of those who are slain, Thrust through with a sword, Who go down to the stones of the pit, Like a corpse trodden underfoot. ✦ ²⁰You will not be joined with them in burial, Because you have destroyed your land And slain your people. The brood of evildoers shall never be named. ✦ ²¹Prepare slaughter for his children Because of the iniquity of their fathers, Lest they rise up and possess the land, And fill the face of the world with cities.” ✦ ²²“For I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts, “And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, And offspring and posterity,” says the Lord. ✦ ²³“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, And marshes of muddy water; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the Lord of hosts. ✦ ²⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, And as I have purposed, so it shall stand: ✦ ²⁵That I will break the Assyrian in My land, And on My mountains tread him underfoot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, And his burden removed from their shoulders. ✦ ²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. ✦ ²⁷For the Lord of hosts has purposed, And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, And who will turn it back?” ✦ ²⁸This is the burden which came in the year that King Ahaz died. ✦ ²⁹“Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, Because the rod that struck you is broken; For out of the serpent’s roots will come forth a viper, And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent. ✦ ³⁰The firstborn of the poor will feed, And the needy will lie down in safety; I will kill your roots with famine, And it will slay your remnant. ✦ ³¹Wail, O gate! Cry, O city! All you of Philistia are dissolved; For smoke will come from the north, And no one will be alone in his appointed times.” ✦ ³²What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has founded Zion, And the poor of His people shall take refuge in it. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Jer 51 ·13 Jer 50 ·12 Rev 18 ·11 Isa 13 ·9 Isa 14 ·8 Ezek 32 ·6 Isa 49 ·6 Ezek 28 ·6

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 14YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 14David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 14Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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