Isaiah 14:2
And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
The verse promises a complete reversal of captivity in the land of the LORD, where the house of Israel possesses its own place and takes as servants and captives those who had enslaved them, ruling over former oppressors with rest from sorrow, fear and hard bondage. It belongs to the burden against Babylon predicting the downfall of Babylon as the head of gold before the silver empire takes its place. Its primary fulfillment is the return from the Babylonian captivity with songs and everlasting joy, pointing beyond that return to the time when God's people will triumph over all opposing forces in complete and final victory. The nearer temporal freedom is interwoven with the farther deliverance from sin and error through the Messiah, so the fall of Babylon is a type of the end of the world and the return a type for all who return from Babylon in the Gospel dispensation. The prophecy moves from the earthly king of Babylon to Lucifer as the power behind Babylon's wickedness, whose overthrow is met at last when the saints are brought from the grave and stand before bound Satan to taunt him over his broken power.
Context and Plain Meaning
The first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah are distinct single prophecies spoken at different times and on different occasions during his active public work as God's messenger to rulers and people, afterward gathered into one collection with chapters often placed out of chronological order. Within that collection this verse belongs to predictions concerning Babylon, Palestina, and Moab. It stands in the leading parts of the great burden of prophecy against Babylon, in the wonderful prophecy of chapters 13 and 14, uttered many years before its fall. That burden predicts the downfall of Babylon as the head of gold before the silver empire takes its place, a fulfillment to be proved by impartial history.
The verse predicts the Babylonish captivity and then consoles Israel with deliverance from exile. In the land of the LORD the house of Israel shall possess its place and take as servants and handmaids those who had held them as servants, shall take captive those whose captives they were, and shall rule over its former oppressors. With that reversal comes rest from sorrow, fear, and hard bondage. This temporal freedom from Babylon is joined to deliverance from sin and error through the Messiah, the exalted Founder of God's spiritual kingdom, with the nearer and the farther deliverance sometimes interwoven and sometimes seen separately.
The chapter's portrayal of the dead in Sheol as active is personification, and their apparent life and activity are figurative, not evidence that the dead are conscious. The king of Babylon pictured entering Sheol and being mocked is not literally met by inhabitants rising from thrones. The dead do not carry their weapons with them.
Fulfillments Past and Future
The reversal promised finds its primary fulfillment in the return from Babylonian captivity coupled with the fall of Babylon, a return made with songs and everlasting joy upon reaching Zion. That historical deliverance points beyond itself to complete and final victory, to a time when God's people will no longer be triumphed over but will themselves triumph over all opposing forces. The enemies in view are those who had enslaved the Jews and hindered the rebuilding of the temple, who are themselves taken as servants, taken captive, and ruled over in turn.
This was fulfilled after Babylon fell to the Persians, when the city suffered great calamities and, having revolted against the king of Persia, was retaken after a siege of twenty months. That retaking was attended by terrible slaughter of the inhabitants, and many of those spared were sold as slaves. The accompanying promise of rest from sorrow, fear, and hard bondage extends to release from Papal oppression ending in 1798, after which God's people are no longer brought under that yoke.
The same triumph is placed after Christ has brought the saints out of the grave and Satan has been bound upon the desolated earth. Then the delivered people possess their place and rule over their former oppressors, standing before Satan as he is sentenced and taunting him over his broken power and failure. In this larger sense the fall of Babylon is a type of the end of the world, and the return from Babylon is a type for the Gospel dispensation. It belongs to all who return from Babylon today as Zerubbabels building the Gospel temple, so that circumstances of the apostatizing trend of Isaiah's time become fit symbols for the greater days and more important events of the Messianic age.
Satan Behind Babylon
The prophecy against Babylon to which this verse belongs moves from the earthly king of Babylon to Lucifer, the power behind Babylon's wickedness. Lucifer is identified as the king of Babylon because the earthly rulers of Babylon served him. In this way the passage presents Satan as the power standing behind earthly rulers.
Satan was and is the ruler of Babylon, and her highest king is Lucifer. Babylon is that false system of religion which proceeds from Satan, given forth by her wise men and her sorcerers and passed out in her golden wine cup as a poisonous draught to all nations. Her ruler, her laws, and her subjects continue, for she has brought all nations under her spiritual sovereignty. From Babylon's doom God provides a refuge, and the wonderful prophecy of chapters 13 and 14 belongs to the great prophecies of the future age, in which circumstances of the apostatizing trend of Isaiah's time become fit symbols for the greater days and more important events of the Messianic age.
The chapter describes the overthrow of Lucifer and the conflict over supremacy that belongs to the account of Lucifer's fall and rebellion. The Son's exaltation aroused envy in Lucifer. The works accomplished through the Son deepened his desire to destroy Christ's kingdom.