Isaiah 14:30, commentary and pictures

The poorest and most miserable will be fed and lie down in safety and security, while Babylon's root will be killed with famine and its remnant and survivors slain and cut off. The promise stands in Isaiah's foretelling of Babylon's destruction, which rises from its earthly king to Lucifer the day-star who inspired all her wickedness and whom her rulers served. It makes known God's refuge from the doom of Babylon, a false religious system whose spirit and life are from Satan and whose teachers spread its poisonous teaching to bring the nations under its rule. It belongs to the figurative prophetic taunt over the downfall of the king of Babylon going down to sheol, where the underworld is stirred and the dead kings he conquered are pictured as rising from their thrones to meet and mock him for becoming weak like them. Their thrones, rising, speech, and mockery are figurative personification and not a literal account of conscious spirits conversing, for sheol holds only the silent dead without work or knowledge.

Setting and Wording

Isaiah 14:30 is part of Isaiah's foretelling of Babylon's destruction in Isaiah 13 and 14. It belongs to the prophecy against Babylon and describes the destruction of its people and descendants. It is part of predictions concerning Babylon, Palestina, and Moab. It belongs to the prophecy concerning Philistia and is part of the account of God's judgments on the nations.

The prophecies of Babylon in Isaiah 13 and 14 rise from the earthly king of Babylon to Lucifer, the day-star, the son of the morning, who has inspired Babylon in all her wickedness and is its highest king. Lucifer is portrayed as the King of Babylon because Babylon's earthly rulers served him, with Satan as the power ruling behind those human rulers.

First-born means those who are foremost or most extreme in a class, so the firstborn of the poor are the poorest and most miserable. The poor and needy will feed and lie down in safety and security, while Babylon's root will be killed with famine and its remnant and survivors slain and cut off. This is spoken in the prophetic taunt over the overthrown king of Babylon in which sheol in the nether parts of the earth is pictured as stirred, with the dead kings he had conquered rising from thrones to mock him for becoming weak like them.

Prophetic Deliverance and Doom

Isaiah 14:30 shows God choosing Israel again the second time and giving them rest from sorrow and fear and hard bondage under the Papal king of Mystery Babylon. The feeding of the firstborn of the poor and the lying down of the needy in safety means the saints are freed when the oppressor has ceased and the staff of the wicked and sceptre of the rulers is broken, with the whole earth at rest and quiet and no feller come up against them, never again to be delivered over into the hand of another oppressor. The killing of the root with famine and the slaying of the remnant means that Papal oppressor that smote the people and ruled the nations in anger is laid down, persecuted with none hindering, with its pomp brought down to the grave in consuming destruction, ending its treading of God's people in 1798.

The verse belongs to the prophecy of chapters 13 and 14 concerning Babylon and her highest king Lucifer, and in that setting it makes known God's refuge from Babylon's doom. Babylon is a false religious system proceeding from Satan, whose spirit and life are in it. Its wise men and sorcerers spread its poisonous teaching among the nations, bringing them under its spiritual rule. The chapter is among the scriptures showing that sin began in a conflict over supremacy, when Lucifer became envious at the exaltation of the Son and his envy grew into a desire to destroy Christ's kingdom.

Figurative Picture of Sheol

Isaiah 14:4-30 is a figurative prophetic taunt over the downfall of the king of Babylon going down to sheol. In it sheol in the nether parts is pictured as stirred, and the dead kings he had conquered are portrayed as rising from their thrones to meet him and mock him for becoming weak like them. Those who see him question whether he is the man who shook kingdoms. The verse belongs to this prophecy, declaring that his root and remnant are cut off with famine and slaughter while the firstborn of the poor feed and the needy lie down in safety.

The thrones, speech, rising, and mockery of the dead are figurative personification, not a literal account of conscious dead people conversing or rising. That portrayal of the dead in sheol as living and active does not describe their literal condition. The scene portrays the king's overthrow and humiliation. The speaking and mocking does not show conscious spirits talking in sheol, for sheol holds only the silent dead without work or knowledge. The scene is figurative like Pharaoh lying among slaughtered armies with swords under their heads and being comforted at the sight, and like Rachel weeping bitterly for her children long after her death.

The chapter presents sheol, the underworld, as a realm where the shades of the dead dwell together. It shows distinctions of rank there, with kings seated on thrones. Yet it gives no clear distinction between separate places for the righteous and the wicked.