Isaiah 14:1
For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
The verse belongs to the first part of Isaiah, chapters 1 to 39, formed when he was involved in the public concerns of rulers and people as God's messenger to the nation. It stands as a single distinct prophecy published at its own time and occasion and afterward gathered into one collection. The book is not arranged chronologically under Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, since several chapters are transposed out of chronological order. It belongs to a prophecy foretelling the overthrow and destruction of Babylon. The chapter is a prophecy concerning Babylon that begins with its earthly king and extends to Lucifer, the day-star and son of the morning, who inspired Babylon's wickedness.
It teaches about Babylon and its highest king, Lucifer, and presents God as the refuge from Babylon's doom. Satan was and is the ruler of Babylon, which is the false system of religion proceeding from Satan. That system was given forth by her wise men and sorcerers and passed out in her golden cup as a poisonous draught to all nations. Her ruler and her laws and her subjects continue while she brings all nations under her spiritual sovereignty.
The verse predicts that the Lord will again show mercy to Jacob and choose Israel, restoring them to their own land, with strangers joining them and becoming attached to the house of Jacob. It also predicts that those who had held the Jews as servants would themselves be held as servants. The strangers are Gentiles who, when God gathers and restores Israel, seek the Lord and join and belong with Jacob's people. They share the name Israel with the gathered people of God as Christians united with believing Israel.
The prophecy is applied to Babylon after its capture by Persia, when Babylon's people suffered calamities. They later revolted against the Persian king, and the city was retaken after a twenty-month siege followed by a great slaughter, with some survivors probably sold into slavery. In one application, the second choosing marks deliverance from sorrow, fear, and hard bondage under the Papal oppressor. After that Israel has rest and is no longer handed over to another oppressor.
The verse begins a prophecy of God's deliverance of His people after the earth is devastated in the day of the Lord. Their rest from sorrow, fear, and bondage is fulfilled when Christ has brought the saints from the grave and Satan's power is broken. Then the people taunt Satan, represented by Babylon's king, as he stands helpless before God, Christ, the angels, and the saints. The verse describes the return from Babylon to Zion with songs and everlasting joy which, coupled with the fall of Babylon as a type of the end of the world, is altogether a type for the Gospel dispensation applying to all who return from Babylon. In that type Zerubbabel the builder stands as a type of all builders of the Gospel temple today.