All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
Isaiah 14:10 is part of the taunt of triumph over the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14:3-23, who is Lucifer become Satan, the true spiritual head behind apostate Babylon. It pictures him brought down to sheol in the nether earth, where the dead chief ones and kings he had conquered are stirred up and rise from their thrones to meet him with derisive greeting, telling him he is overthrown and made weak and like them. The thrones and speaking are figurative personification to portray his defeat vividly, not proof that the dead are conscious, for the dead in hades are silent and unconscious without thought or utterance until the resurrection. His fall came from proud self-exaltation to ascend above heaven and be like the Most High, choosing his own selfish way instead of God's way of love, and it foreshadows his final powerlessness when the wicked dead greet him on the desolated earth at the beginning of the thousand years, showing that separation from God brings abasement, bondage and death.
Context and King Identified
The verse belongs to the proverb and taunt and ode of triumph taken up against the king of Babylon in Isaiah 13-14, especially Isaiah 14:3-23, a poetic passage and burden of prophecy foretelling the destruction and overthrow of Babylon. It is the proverb Israel takes up after God chooses Israel again the second time and gives them rest from sorrow and fear and hard bondage, when the oppressor has ceased, the staff of the wicked and sceptre of the rulers are broken, he who smote the people and ruled the nations in anger is laid down, the whole earth is at rest and quiet, and no feller comes up against God's people. In that setting the Papal king of Mystery Babylon is laid down and persecuted with none hindering. The burden was spoken many years before the fall, before the city reached its height, and its judgment was fulfilled through Babylon's decline, desolation and downfall as the head of gold, before the silver Persian empire took its place in succession.
The king addressed is Lucifer, son of the morning, the day-star and light-bearer who became Satan the adversary by rebellion. He is portrayed as the invisible, first and true king and head of Babylon's apostate religious system, who inspired Babylon in all her wickedness, and the prophecy rises from the earthly king of Babylon to him. He sought to take God's throne and rule universally, and his fall from heaven and desire to be like the Most High was the beginning of his apostasy. Unable to take Christ's place as head of the church, he leads the opposing system and seeks through it to direct civil governments against Christianity, and the greatness of ancient Babylon was the outward expression of his effort to establish his dominion upon this earth and defeat God's plan to save the world. The empire was under Satanic control, and as the first head of the beast it made the beast a Babylonian beast while it lasted, since the head gives character to the whole. He worked through Babylon against the truth of God and endeavored to destroy God's captive people, as in the burning of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace which would have been followed by destruction of all the faithful had God not interposed.
The earthly rulers of Babylon are distinct from the spiritual ruler behind them, but they served him and acted out the will of Lucifer, the first king of Babylon. Ancient Babylon's destruction serves as a type of what will come upon Satan and all his children in the end.
Humiliation Depicted in Verse
The overthrown king goes down to sheol in the nether parts of the earth, where the dead chief ones and kings of the nations are stirred up to meet him at his coming. They are the rulers he had conquered and destroyed in his prosperity, and they rise from their thrones to greet him. Their rising is a feigned, derisive obeisance offered in mockery, set in place of the real homage rendered in life. Onlookers look narrowly upon him as the man who made the earth tremble and shook kingdoms.
Those who meet him speak and say that he has become weak and has become like them. The question declares his utter overthrow and the collapse of his former power and ambition. He who aspired to rise above all is brought low to share the weakness and fate of the dead. Death reduces the proud king to the same level as his subjects and prisoners and those who came before him, made powerless and mortal like those he once weakened and ruled.
The thrones and the rising and the taunting speech are not literal, for there are no literal thrones in sheol and no literal conversation among the dead. The dead cannot physically address one coming down into the grave, but imagined words are put into their mouths to portray the king's defeat and humiliation vividly and to make the prophecy striking. The language is figurative personification in which unconscious things are represented as living and acting and speaking, like the rejoicing fir trees and cedars of Lebanon. The same figure appears where the dead speak and act as though alive concerning the facts of their case, proving that such speech does not mean the dead are conscious.
Reason for the Fall
The fall arose from self-exaltation and a settled plot to take God's throne and rule universally. In his heart he purposed to ascend into heaven, to exalt his throne above the angels, to sit upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, to ascend above the clouds, and to be like the Most High. Unable to take Christ's place as head of the church, he became the apostate head of the opposing system and sought through it to direct earthly powers against Christianity. That rebellion was a plot to destroy the universe itself, even to dethrone God and overthrow Christ's kingdom.
Its cause was free choice of his own selfish, proud way instead of God's unselfish way of love. Proud of the glory and beauty placed upon him as though his own, he rebelled in selfishness and aspired to the throne of Eternal Goodness. His brightness and wisdom were corrupted when he chose unbelief and self-advancement, turning from God to self until he became the adversary, a mighty power for evil, and rejecting offers to reform. In that rebellion he charged God with injustice and falsehood, perverting righteous law into sin and life into death. He sought exaltation, freedom and life by opposing God, but separation from God brought abasement, bondage and death, with sin's ripened results of suffering, destruction and death exposing the evil of rebellion.
That same spirit of self-exaltation and departure from God was manifest in the origination of historical Babylon at Babel and dominates every departure from God. The same spirit of charging God with falsehood and injustice was then brought to this world. The ambition and unholy greed of the earthly king of Babylon resemble Lucifer's desire to rule in God's place. Because of rebellious envy he was removed from the heavenly courts, showing the fall of the highest created being in all the universe.
Prophetic Fulfilment Over Time
The burden against Babylon was uttered before the city reached its height, many years before its fall, and its judgment was fulfilled through decline and eventual desolation. The downfall it foretells is the fall of Babylon as the head of gold, before the silver Persian empire takes its place in succession.
The proverb is taken up after God chooses Israel again the second time and gives them rest from sorrow and fear and hard bondage. Then the oppressor has ceased, for the Papal king of Mystery Babylon is laid down, the staff of the wicked and sceptre of the rulers are broken, and he who smote the people and ruled the nations in anger is persecuted with none hindering. So the whole earth is at rest and quiet, and no feller comes up against God's people.
Ancient Babylon's destruction serves as a type of what will come upon Satan and all his children in the end. The earthly king of Babylon acted out the will of Lucifer, the first and true king of Babylon, originally the light-bearer who became Satan the adversary by rebellion. He was the invisible king of Babylon, and the greatness of ancient Babylon was the outward expression of his effort to establish his dominion upon this earth and defeat God's plan to save the world. The empire of Babylon was under Satanic control, and as the first head of the beast it made the beast a Babylonian beast while it lasted, since the head gives character to the whole. Satan acting through Babylon made it the first head of the beast, the abnormal church-and-state system that corrupts the truth of God and wars against God, His Christ, and His church. His power works through pagan empires and religious apostasy to direct civil governments against Christianity and endeavored to destroy God's captive people in their captivity, as in the burning of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, which would have been followed by destruction of all the faithful had God not interposed.
The fallen ruler is confronted by those who have also become weak and dead. The verse portrays the wicked dead greeting Satan when he is cast onto the desolated earth at the beginning of the thousand years. They recognize that he has become powerless and mortal like them, despite his former power and rule over the nations.
State of the Dead
Sheol is identical with hades, the region of the dead beneath in the interior, bosom, heart and nether parts of the earth, the place of every grave holding the dead until resurrection. It is a place of thickest darkness, silence, secrecy, forgetfulness and death, where there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom, no remembrance of God and no thanksgiving. The overthrown king of Babylon goes down there, where the dead chief ones and kings of the nations he conquered and destroyed are stirred up to meet him at his coming and rise from their thrones to greet him with feigned obeisance in place of the real homage of life. They taunt him that he has become weak and like them, while onlookers look narrowly on him as the man who made the earth tremble and shook kingdoms.
Its inhabitants are dead, not living souls in conscious bliss, and the dead are silent, unconscious, without life, thought or power of utterance. The kings are not literally seated on thrones in sheol, nor do they literally rise and speak and mock there. Their thrones and rising and taunting speech are not literal, for sheol is the dark abode in the earth beneath holding only unconscious dead who cannot literally sit or speak or mock.
Their speech is purely poetic personification, a figure in which unconscious and inanimate things are represented as living, acting and speaking to bring truth forcibly before the living and before the mind. It is like the rejoicing fir trees and cedars of Lebanon, like Pharaoh comforted among slaughtered armies lying with swords under their heads, like Rachel weeping for her children long after her death, and like God speaking of things that in His purpose shall surely be as though they already exist. Prophets may give speech and actions to fictional or impossible characters in figurative writing without asserting that the dead are conscious, and the dead cannot physically address someone descending into the grave, but their imagined words portray the king's humiliation vividly and mean that death reduces the proud king to the same level with his subjects and prisoners. The personified conversation therefore does not teach that the dead are conscious, intelligent and active, exist as disembodied spirits, enjoy bliss or suffer in death. It gives the same answer that explains the parable of Dives and Lazarus and the rich man and Lazarus, which concern that very place and show that personified conversation of the dead in sheol does not teach consciousness, and that recompense and punishment of wicked men come only after the day of judgment.
Those who held a different reading taught that the dead in sheol speak consciously to the fallen king and recognize his weakness, as part of his entrance into the unseen realm of departed spirits, which is distinguished from the grave where the body is buried. In that same line the chapter was taken as an example of an early view in which good and bad dead dwell together in the underworld, with differences of rank but no clear separation into places for the righteous and the wicked.
Scripture Links and Application
The verse belongs to an Old Testament metaphorical illustration and stands as an example of the figurative forms used in teaching, not as a literal account of the condition of the dead. It shows the dead in sheol in the nether parts of the earth stirred up to meet the overthrown king of Babylon when he goes down to join them, with kings he destroyed sitting on thrones beneath and rising up to mock him with feigned obeisance like the real homage they gave in life, taunting him that he has become weak and like them. They do not literally act or speak thus, for the dead are not alive and hades is in the interior of the earth as a place of utter darkness, silence, secrecy, forgetfulness, deep sleep and death where there is no knowledge, thought, life, consciousness or power of utterance. The speech is striking personification in which unconscious persons who have no life are represented as talking and acting just as they would under the existing circumstances were they indeed alive and capable of thought and utterance, to bring truth forcibly to bear on the living, even as God speaks of things that in His purpose shall surely be as though they already exist. Its meaning is that death reduces the proud king to the same level with his subjects and prisoners, and it gives the prophetic pattern for the rich man and Lazarus and for Dives and Lazarus, which concern that very place, showing that personified conversation of the dead in sheol does not teach that the dead are conscious, intelligent and active, and that recompense and punishment of wicked men come only after the day of judgment.
The fallen ruler is thus brought low and reduced to the weakness of those who came before him and who share his fate. In its application of Isaiah 14:4-14 and Isaiah 14:4-15, Lucifer sought exaltation, freedom and life by opposing God and turning from God to self, becoming Satan the adversary and a mighty power for evil, but separation from God brought abasement, bondage and death. His brightness and wisdom were corrupted when he chose unbelief and self-advancement and rejected God's offers to reform, and sin's ripened results include suffering, destruction and death, exposing the evil of rebellion against God.
The king's ambition and unholy greed resemble Lucifer's desire to rule in God's place. Lucifer, as king of Babylon, proposed to reign even to the dethroning of God, being puffed up with his wisdom perverted by wine, not only of the bottle but of ambition and unholy greed, the wine of Babylon. That same intoxication deadens human sensibility and is the cause of inhuman oppression in which man swallows up his fellow.
Isaiah 14:10 is part of the taunt of triumph over the king of Babylon in Isaiah 14:3-23, who is Lucifer become Satan, the true spiritual head behind apostate Babylon. It pictures him brought down to sheol in the nether earth, where the dead chief ones and kings he had conquered are stirred up and rise from their thrones to meet him with derisive greeting, telling him he is overthrown and made weak and like them. The thrones and speaking are figurative personification to portray his defeat vividly, not proof that the dead are conscious, for the dead in hades are silent and unconscious without thought or utterance until the resurrection. His fall came from proud self-exaltation to ascend above heaven and be like the Most High, choosing his own selfish way instead of God's way of love, and it foreshadows his final powerlessness when the wicked dead greet him on the desolated earth at the beginning of the thousand years, showing that separation from God brings abasement, bondage and death.
Context and King Identified
The verse belongs to the proverb and taunt and ode of triumph taken up against the king of Babylon in Isaiah 13-14, especially Isaiah 14:3-23, a poetic passage and burden of prophecy foretelling the destruction and overthrow of Babylon. It is the proverb Israel takes up after God chooses Israel again the second time and gives them rest from sorrow and fear and hard bondage, when the oppressor has ceased, the staff of the wicked and sceptre of the rulers are broken, he who smote the people and ruled the nations in anger is laid down, the whole earth is at rest and quiet, and no feller comes up against God's people. In that setting the Papal king of Mystery Babylon is laid down and persecuted with none hindering. The burden was spoken many years before the fall, before the city reached its height, and its judgment was fulfilled through Babylon's decline, desolation and downfall as the head of gold, before the silver Persian empire took its place in succession.
The king addressed is Lucifer, son of the morning, the day-star and light-bearer who became Satan the adversary by rebellion. He is portrayed as the invisible, first and true king and head of Babylon's apostate religious system, who inspired Babylon in all her wickedness, and the prophecy rises from the earthly king of Babylon to him. He sought to take God's throne and rule universally, and his fall from heaven and desire to be like the Most High was the beginning of his apostasy. Unable to take Christ's place as head of the church, he leads the opposing system and seeks through it to direct civil governments against Christianity, and the greatness of ancient Babylon was the outward expression of his effort to establish his dominion upon this earth and defeat God's plan to save the world. The empire was under Satanic control, and as the first head of the beast it made the beast a Babylonian beast while it lasted, since the head gives character to the whole. He worked through Babylon against the truth of God and endeavored to destroy God's captive people, as in the burning of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace which would have been followed by destruction of all the faithful had God not interposed.
The earthly rulers of Babylon are distinct from the spiritual ruler behind them, but they served him and acted out the will of Lucifer, the first king of Babylon. Ancient Babylon's destruction serves as a type of what will come upon Satan and all his children in the end.
Humiliation Depicted in Verse
The overthrown king goes down to sheol in the nether parts of the earth, where the dead chief ones and kings of the nations are stirred up to meet him at his coming. They are the rulers he had conquered and destroyed in his prosperity, and they rise from their thrones to greet him. Their rising is a feigned, derisive obeisance offered in mockery, set in place of the real homage rendered in life. Onlookers look narrowly upon him as the man who made the earth tremble and shook kingdoms.
Those who meet him speak and say that he has become weak and has become like them. The question declares his utter overthrow and the collapse of his former power and ambition. He who aspired to rise above all is brought low to share the weakness and fate of the dead. Death reduces the proud king to the same level as his subjects and prisoners and those who came before him, made powerless and mortal like those he once weakened and ruled.
The thrones and the rising and the taunting speech are not literal, for there are no literal thrones in sheol and no literal conversation among the dead. The dead cannot physically address one coming down into the grave, but imagined words are put into their mouths to portray the king's defeat and humiliation vividly and to make the prophecy striking. The language is figurative personification in which unconscious things are represented as living and acting and speaking, like the rejoicing fir trees and cedars of Lebanon. The same figure appears where the dead speak and act as though alive concerning the facts of their case, proving that such speech does not mean the dead are conscious.
Reason for the Fall
The fall arose from self-exaltation and a settled plot to take God's throne and rule universally. In his heart he purposed to ascend into heaven, to exalt his throne above the angels, to sit upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, to ascend above the clouds, and to be like the Most High. Unable to take Christ's place as head of the church, he became the apostate head of the opposing system and sought through it to direct earthly powers against Christianity. That rebellion was a plot to destroy the universe itself, even to dethrone God and overthrow Christ's kingdom.
Its cause was free choice of his own selfish, proud way instead of God's unselfish way of love. Proud of the glory and beauty placed upon him as though his own, he rebelled in selfishness and aspired to the throne of Eternal Goodness. His brightness and wisdom were corrupted when he chose unbelief and self-advancement, turning from God to self until he became the adversary, a mighty power for evil, and rejecting offers to reform. In that rebellion he charged God with injustice and falsehood, perverting righteous law into sin and life into death. He sought exaltation, freedom and life by opposing God, but separation from God brought abasement, bondage and death, with sin's ripened results of suffering, destruction and death exposing the evil of rebellion.
That same spirit of self-exaltation and departure from God was manifest in the origination of historical Babylon at Babel and dominates every departure from God. The same spirit of charging God with falsehood and injustice was then brought to this world. The ambition and unholy greed of the earthly king of Babylon resemble Lucifer's desire to rule in God's place. Because of rebellious envy he was removed from the heavenly courts, showing the fall of the highest created being in all the universe.
Prophetic Fulfilment Over Time
The burden against Babylon was uttered before the city reached its height, many years before its fall, and its judgment was fulfilled through decline and eventual desolation. The downfall it foretells is the fall of Babylon as the head of gold, before the silver Persian empire takes its place in succession.
The proverb is taken up after God chooses Israel again the second time and gives them rest from sorrow and fear and hard bondage. Then the oppressor has ceased, for the Papal king of Mystery Babylon is laid down, the staff of the wicked and sceptre of the rulers are broken, and he who smote the people and ruled the nations in anger is persecuted with none hindering. So the whole earth is at rest and quiet, and no feller comes up against God's people.
Ancient Babylon's destruction serves as a type of what will come upon Satan and all his children in the end. The earthly king of Babylon acted out the will of Lucifer, the first and true king of Babylon, originally the light-bearer who became Satan the adversary by rebellion. He was the invisible king of Babylon, and the greatness of ancient Babylon was the outward expression of his effort to establish his dominion upon this earth and defeat God's plan to save the world. The empire of Babylon was under Satanic control, and as the first head of the beast it made the beast a Babylonian beast while it lasted, since the head gives character to the whole. Satan acting through Babylon made it the first head of the beast, the abnormal church-and-state system that corrupts the truth of God and wars against God, His Christ, and His church. His power works through pagan empires and religious apostasy to direct civil governments against Christianity and endeavored to destroy God's captive people in their captivity, as in the burning of the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, which would have been followed by destruction of all the faithful had God not interposed.
The fallen ruler is confronted by those who have also become weak and dead. The verse portrays the wicked dead greeting Satan when he is cast onto the desolated earth at the beginning of the thousand years. They recognize that he has become powerless and mortal like them, despite his former power and rule over the nations.
State of the Dead
Sheol is identical with hades, the region of the dead beneath in the interior, bosom, heart and nether parts of the earth, the place of every grave holding the dead until resurrection. It is a place of thickest darkness, silence, secrecy, forgetfulness and death, where there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom, no remembrance of God and no thanksgiving. The overthrown king of Babylon goes down there, where the dead chief ones and kings of the nations he conquered and destroyed are stirred up to meet him at his coming and rise from their thrones to greet him with feigned obeisance in place of the real homage of life. They taunt him that he has become weak and like them, while onlookers look narrowly on him as the man who made the earth tremble and shook kingdoms.
Its inhabitants are dead, not living souls in conscious bliss, and the dead are silent, unconscious, without life, thought or power of utterance. The kings are not literally seated on thrones in sheol, nor do they literally rise and speak and mock there. Their thrones and rising and taunting speech are not literal, for sheol is the dark abode in the earth beneath holding only unconscious dead who cannot literally sit or speak or mock.
Their speech is purely poetic personification, a figure in which unconscious and inanimate things are represented as living, acting and speaking to bring truth forcibly before the living and before the mind. It is like the rejoicing fir trees and cedars of Lebanon, like Pharaoh comforted among slaughtered armies lying with swords under their heads, like Rachel weeping for her children long after her death, and like God speaking of things that in His purpose shall surely be as though they already exist. Prophets may give speech and actions to fictional or impossible characters in figurative writing without asserting that the dead are conscious, and the dead cannot physically address someone descending into the grave, but their imagined words portray the king's humiliation vividly and mean that death reduces the proud king to the same level with his subjects and prisoners. The personified conversation therefore does not teach that the dead are conscious, intelligent and active, exist as disembodied spirits, enjoy bliss or suffer in death. It gives the same answer that explains the parable of Dives and Lazarus and the rich man and Lazarus, which concern that very place and show that personified conversation of the dead in sheol does not teach consciousness, and that recompense and punishment of wicked men come only after the day of judgment.
Those who held a different reading taught that the dead in sheol speak consciously to the fallen king and recognize his weakness, as part of his entrance into the unseen realm of departed spirits, which is distinguished from the grave where the body is buried. In that same line the chapter was taken as an example of an early view in which good and bad dead dwell together in the underworld, with differences of rank but no clear separation into places for the righteous and the wicked.
Scripture Links and Application
The verse belongs to an Old Testament metaphorical illustration and stands as an example of the figurative forms used in teaching, not as a literal account of the condition of the dead. It shows the dead in sheol in the nether parts of the earth stirred up to meet the overthrown king of Babylon when he goes down to join them, with kings he destroyed sitting on thrones beneath and rising up to mock him with feigned obeisance like the real homage they gave in life, taunting him that he has become weak and like them. They do not literally act or speak thus, for the dead are not alive and hades is in the interior of the earth as a place of utter darkness, silence, secrecy, forgetfulness, deep sleep and death where there is no knowledge, thought, life, consciousness or power of utterance. The speech is striking personification in which unconscious persons who have no life are represented as talking and acting just as they would under the existing circumstances were they indeed alive and capable of thought and utterance, to bring truth forcibly to bear on the living, even as God speaks of things that in His purpose shall surely be as though they already exist. Its meaning is that death reduces the proud king to the same level with his subjects and prisoners, and it gives the prophetic pattern for the rich man and Lazarus and for Dives and Lazarus, which concern that very place, showing that personified conversation of the dead in sheol does not teach that the dead are conscious, intelligent and active, and that recompense and punishment of wicked men come only after the day of judgment.
The fallen ruler is thus brought low and reduced to the weakness of those who came before him and who share his fate. In its application of Isaiah 14:4-14 and Isaiah 14:4-15, Lucifer sought exaltation, freedom and life by opposing God and turning from God to self, becoming Satan the adversary and a mighty power for evil, but separation from God brought abasement, bondage and death. His brightness and wisdom were corrupted when he chose unbelief and self-advancement and rejected God's offers to reform, and sin's ripened results include suffering, destruction and death, exposing the evil of rebellion against God.
The king's ambition and unholy greed resemble Lucifer's desire to rule in God's place. Lucifer, as king of Babylon, proposed to reign even to the dethroning of God, being puffed up with his wisdom perverted by wine, not only of the bottle but of ambition and unholy greed, the wine of Babylon. That same intoxication deadens human sensibility and is the cause of inhuman oppression in which man swallows up his fellow.