Isaiah 14:11, commentary and pictures

The verse is a song of triumph over the king of Babylon, picturing all his splendor and revelry with music brought low into the grave to lie in corruption among worms. The grave is Sheol, the common abode of the dead beneath the earth, where pomp ends in darkness, silence and decay and the body is spread over worms and covered by them. The dead kings rising from thrones to meet and mock him is figurative personification to humble the proud oppressor to the level of his victims, and does not teach that the dead are conscious or active. Behind the earthly king the prophecy rises to Lucifer, once highest and most musical of created beings, who through pride and self-exaltation became Satan, the invisible ruler and inspirer of Babylon in all its oppression. The worms feeding on the dead picture absolute consumption and extinction of being, the very opposite of eternal life in misery, showing that separation from God in pride and ambition to reign in His place ends in humiliation and destruction.

Setting in Isaiah's Prophecy

Isaiah 14:11 stands in the taunt and proverb and ode of triumph in Isaiah 14:3-23 against the king of Babylon. That ode is one of the most poetical passages in literature. In it his pomp and music and earthly splendor are brought down to the grave, where worms cover him in humiliation and death.

Around it the dead already in sheol in its nether parts are stirred up to meet him when he goes down. The conquered kings he destroyed and laid low rise from thrones in that dark abode beneath to meet him with feigned obeisance, as real homage had been given in life, and mock him. They taunt him, Art thou also become weak as we, and declare his being brought down to their level, while onlookers narrowly look on him saying Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms. The pomp brought down to the grave with worms spread under and over him shows death reducing the proud oppressor to the same condition as his subjects and prisoners.

The verse belongs to Isaiah's foretold burden and predictions concerning Babylon in Isaiah 13 to 16, including Palestina and Moab. It was spoken many years before the fall, foretelling the destruction of Babylon and the downfall of Babylon as the head of gold and the end of its rule before the silver Persian empire takes its place, with its fulfillment to be seen in impartial history. The proverb is taken up by Israel after God chooses Israel again the second time and gives rest from sorrow and fear and hard bondage. Then it is declared that the oppressor has ceased, the golden city has ceased, the staff of the wicked and sceptre of the rulers is broken, he who smote the people and ruled nations in anger is laid down, and the whole earth is at rest and quiet and breaks into singing. The prophecy of Babylon begins with the earthly king of Babylon and rises to Lucifer, the day-star, son of the morning, who has inspired Babylon in all her wickedness.

Grave Pomp and Worms

The word rendered hell in the verse is sheol, meaning the grave, the sepulchre, the underworld, the state of the dead, the abode of the dead and not a place of future punishment. Grave would answer equally well there, and to render it hell gives no idea of future punishment. It is one of thirty-one places where sheol is rendered grave out of sixty-five total uses in the Scriptures, and one of the Old Testament places where sheol is translated grave. Sheol is the Old Testament term corresponding in meaning to the New Testament term hades.

Sheol, or hades, is located in the bosom, heart, interior, and nether parts of the earth, beneath the earth in its depths. It embraces the whole interior as the common region of the dead and the place of every grave. The descent to the grave supports that the dead enter the grave, not Paradise in heaven. Pomp and the sound of musical instruments are brought down to lie there among worms.

Pomp and the noise of viols are former splendor, musical splendor, and revelry brought low to corruption. The fallen king's pomp and musical revelry are brought down to sheol, the place or state of the dead beneath the earth, in humiliation and death. Sheol is a place of darkness and silence, and of silence, secrecy, sleep, rest and darkness. For the fallen one after his fall, discord replaces the harmony he had as a created being with a highly musical nature.

The worm spread under and the worms covering are the body laid beneath the ground among worms in corruption and death. The picture of pomp brought down to the grave and the body covered by worms points to death, not to a living soul dwelling there, since the inhabitants of hades are identified as the dead. Sheol is poetically personified and put by metonymy for its inhabitants, picturing the underworld as inhabited by the shades of the dead, the rephaim. It stands as an exception to the description of sheol as full of thickest darkness.

King of Babylon Identified

The king of Babylon in the verse is fallen Lucifer, once the highest created being and light-bearer, who became Satan the adversary, the prince of darkness and the invisible king of Babylon. His pomp and musical display are brought down to the grave, his body laid beneath the ground and covered by worms, showing his humiliation, defeat and death. That bringing low belongs to the proud rebel who fell from heaven and sought to be like God, whose ambition to reign in God's place, to lead worship through apostasy, and to direct civil powers against Christianity ends in humiliation. It expresses the final overthrow of this proud ruler and the defeat of the spirit of rebellion that began historical Babylon and marks every departure from God, while showing God's refuge from Babylon's doom.

Lucifer was created wise and beautiful but chose pride and self-rule over God's way, becoming proud of the glory and beauty given him, treating them as his own, and selfishly rebelling against God's throne. His brightness and wisdom were turned toward self, so that the being who was once the day-star of God became Satan the adversary and a mighty power for evil, who proposed to reign even to the dethroning of God and to be like God. He led the great revolt in heaven with the ambition, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High, and was removed from the heavenly courts because of rebellious envy. His attempt to dethrone God brought abasement, bondage, suffering, destruction and death instead of the exaltation, freedom and life he sought, showing that separation from God, the source of life and freedom, ends in destruction and shows the outcome of unbelief and self-centeredness. His wisdom was perverted by the wine of Babylon, not necessarily or alone the wine of the bottle or flask, but ambition and unholy greed, which puffed him up and deadened human sensibility, and that same intoxication is the cause of inhuman oppression when man swallows up his fellow.

Babylon is a satanically controlled power and false religious system proceeding from Satan, whose rule and influence continue through its laws and subjects and extend over the nations. The greatness of that ancient monarchy was the outward expression of the effort of the god of this world to establish his dominion upon this planet in open rebellion against God and to defeat God's plan to save the world. As the first head of the beast it gives the wider system its Babylonian character, opposing God and seeking to destroy His people. Babylon's persecution of God's people is attributed to the influence of this fallen ruler called the king of Babylon, whose prideful ambition to exalt himself above God represents the spirit behind Babylonian religion and its forms of self-salvation, coercion and domination. That spirit of Satan is manifest in every phase of the one great Babylonian system from Babylon of old to the present time, founded on self-salvation apart from God, the repetition of the old Babylonian cry to build a city and tower to reach heaven and make a name, joining salvation of soul and earthly preservation by the WE and the US, calling itself the gate of God while God calls it confusion, and showing itself in creed, arbitrary decrees, religious dogmas, state law, union of church and state, and religion by dictation, law and force, in opposition to the humility and meekness of Jesus Christ.

The king of Babylon is the Papal king of Mystery Babylon, whose pomp is brought down to the grave and whose noise of viols is ended when he was led captive and laid down in 1798. The worm spread under him and the worms covering him denote a consuming process upon the Papacy synchronizing with the consumption decreed in Isaiah 10 and Daniel 7. The verse belongs to the proverb Israel takes up against the king of Babylon after God chooses Israel again the second time and gives rest from sorrow and fear and hard bondage, declaring the oppressor has ceased, the golden city has ceased, the staff of the wicked and sceptre of the rulers is broken, he who smote the people and ruled nations in anger is laid down, and the whole earth is at rest and quiet and breaks into singing. It proves that since 1798 no feller has come up against God's people, they have not again been brought under the galling yoke of an oppressor to be trodden under foot and delivered over to another oppressor, and the treading-under-foot indignation ceased in 1798.

Prophecy Fulfilled in History

The burden against Babylon was uttered before that power had reached the height of its strength and glory, when its apparent might made its ruin seem unlikely. It foretold the downfall of Babylon as the head of gold and the end of its rule before the silver Persian empire should take its place. That promised ruin was fulfilled as the city declined into desolation and ceased to be inhabited, a fact to be seen in impartial history.

The pomp brought down to the grave and the ending of the noise of viols is the laying down of the Papal king of Mystery Babylon when he was led captive in 1798. The worm spread under him and the worms covering him denote a consuming process upon the Papacy, synchronizing with the consumption decreed in Isaiah 10 and Daniel 7. With that laying down the oppressor has ceased, the golden city has ceased, the staff of the wicked and sceptre of the rulers is broken, he who smote the people and ruled nations in anger is laid down, and the whole earth is at rest and quiet and breaks into singing. It proves that since 1798 no feller has come up against God's people, they have not again been brought under the galling yoke of an oppressor to be trodden under foot and delivered over to another oppressor, and the treading-under-foot indignation ceased in 1798.

The utter overthrow of the king of Babylon expresses the final overthrow of the proud ruler, once Lucifer, created wise and beautiful but choosing pride and self-rule to become the prince of darkness. The downfall of ancient Babylon represents the final judgment on Satan and those who follow him, and the defeat of the spirit of rebellion that began historical Babylon and marks every departure from God. In that wonderful prophecy concerning Babylon and her highest king Lucifer is shown God's refuge from Babylon's doom. The bringing of pomp and music down to the grave with worms covering him portrays Satan's humiliation and powerless state during the thousand years, when he is cast onto the desolate earth and is greeted by the wicked dead while they remain dead in their graves.

Death and Final Destruction

The grave, the worms, and the dead rising, speaking, mocking, and sitting on thrones are figurative personification and not a literal scene deep in the earth. The dead kings do not literally rise, literally converse, literally mock, literally sit on thrones in the underworld, and are not literally conscious, comforted, ashamed, or active there. It is the same figurative form as Pharaoh comforted among the slain with swords under their heads and Rachel weeping for her children long after her death, and as the familiar figurative form used by Jesus. The dead in the grave are portrayed as seeing, looking, and speaking, and as addressing the fallen king as he descends, though the dead cannot literally speak to one arriving among them.

That personified speech is used to force truth upon the living and to show death reducing the proud oppressor to the same condition as his subjects and prisoners. The pomp brought down to the grave with worms spread under and over shows that leveling, with the destroyed kings sitting on thrones beneath in the dark domain, rising in mock obeisance, and taunting him with becoming weak like them and being brought down to their level. It does not prove consciousness, knowledge, or activity in death, does not teach that disembodied spirits are conscious, and does not teach that the dead are conscious, since there is no knowledge in Sheol.

Those who held a different reading taught that the king enters sheol, the underworld or place of departed spirits, after death among worms as part of a description of the dead entering a conscious state. In that reading the dead are pictured with differences in rank, as when kings sit on thrones, though it says nothing definite about separate places for the righteous and the wicked.

The descent to the grave supports that the dead enter the grave, not Paradise in heaven. Sheol, or hades, is located in the bosom, heart, interior, and nether part of the earth, and this location proves Paradise cannot be a part of hades. For then Paradise and its tree of life would be flourishing in some cavern in the interior of the earth, and Paul when caught away in vision to Paradise would have been taken to the depths of the earth and not to the third heaven.

The worm is an agent of destruction acting always in connection with death upon the dead, feeding on the dead and not the living. It is external to and distinct from the objects upon which it preys and completes their utter consumption. It is not the remorse of a guilty conscience tormenting someone forever. The worms preying upon the carcasses of the dead picture absolute and complete destruction, utter consumption, and extinction of being, the very opposite of eternal life in misery for the wicked, the same symbol as the worm in Mark 9:44, 46, 48.

Pride Oppression and Warning

The bringing of pomp down to the grave belongs to the prophecy about Lucifer as the king of Babylon, whose ambition was to reign in God's place. That humiliation is linked to pride and greed seeking power beyond all limits. His attempt to dethrone God brought abasement, bondage and death instead of the exaltation, freedom and life he sought, showing that separation from God as the source of life and freedom ends in destruction. The being whose brightness and wisdom were turned toward self became Satan the adversary, a mighty power for evil, and that perversion of what was good brought sin's ripened results of suffering, destruction and death, showing the outcome of unbelief and self-centeredness.

Lucifer as king of Babylon proposed to reign even to the dethroning of God. His wisdom was perverted by the wine of Babylon, not necessarily or alone the wine of the bottle or flask, but ambition and unholy greed. That wine puffed him up and deadened human sensibility, and the same intoxication is the cause of inhuman oppression when man swallows up his fellow.

The fallen Lucifer called king of Babylon stands behind a satanically controlled power that opposes God and seeks to destroy His people, and as the first head of the beast Babylon gives the wider system its Babylonian character. Babylon is a false religious system proceeding from Satan, whose rule and influence continue through its laws and subjects and extend over the nations, and its persecution of God's people is attributed to this fallen ruler. His ambition to ascend into heaven, to exalt his throne above the stars of God, to ascend above the heights of the clouds, and to be like the Most High is the spirit of Satan manifest in every phase of the one great Babylonian system from Babylon of old to the present time. That system is founded on self-salvation apart from God, repeating the old Babylonian cry to build a city and tower to reach heaven and make a name, joining salvation of soul and earthly preservation by the WE and the US, calling itself the gate of God while God calls it confusion. It shows itself in creed, arbitrary decrees, religious dogmas, state law, union of church and state, and religion by dictation, law and force, in opposition to the humility and meekness of Jesus Christ, with its prideful ambition to exalt self above God representing the spirit behind Babylonian religion and its forms of self-salvation, coercion and domination.