CHAPTER 14 May 24 
Israel Allowed to Return
For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob. 2The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh’s land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they once were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Babylon Is Destroyed
It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow from your trouble and from the hard service in which you were made to serve, 4that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon and say, How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased! 5Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers, 6who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained. 7The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out in song. 8Yes, the fir trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us. 9Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 10They all will answer and ask you, Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us? 11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you. 12How you have fallen from heaven, morning star [Lucifer], son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low! 13You said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! 14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High! 15Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit. 16Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms; 17who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities; who didn’t release his prisoners to their home? 18All the kings of the nations sleep in glory, each one in his own house. 19But you are cast away from your tomb like a hated branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot. 20You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The seed of evildoers will not be mentioned by name forever. 21Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they rise not up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities. 22I will rise up against them, says Yahweh of Armies, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son, says Yahweh. 23I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says Yahweh of Armies. 24Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying, Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: 25that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and tread him under foot on My mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders. 26This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. 27For Yahweh of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? 28This burden was in the year that king Ahaz died.
Philistines Destroyed
Don’t rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent. 30The first-born of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed. 31Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks. 32What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of His people will take refuge.

Commentary

14:12 It is assumed by some that Lucifer was once a powerful angel who sinned at Adam’s time and was therefore cast down to earth. This isn’t Biblical. The words “Devil”, “Satan” and “angel” never occur in this chapter. This is the only place in Scripture where the word “Lucifer” occurs in some translations. There is no evidence that Isaiah 14 is describing anything that happened in the garden of Eden; if it is, then why are we left 3,000 years from the time of Genesis before being told what really happened there? Lucifer is described as being covered in maggots (:11) and mocked by men (:16) because he no longer has any power; so there is no justification for thinking that Lucifer is now on earth leading believers astray. Why is Lucifer punished for saying, “I will ascend into heaven” (:13), if he was already there? Lucifer is to rot in sheol [the grave] (:11). Seeing angels cannot die (Lk. 20:35,36), Lucifer therefore cannot be an angel; the language is more suited to a man. It wasn’t until Milton’s Paradise Lost that the term ‘Lucifer’ took on any connotation of ‘Satan’ or a force of evil in secular thinking. Isaiah 13–23 is a series of “burdens” on various nations, e.g. Babylon, Tyre, Egypt. 14:4, sets the context as being a parable against the king of Babylon. The prophecy is therefore about the human king of Babylon, who is described as the morning star. He is clearly defined as a man in :16, a king like any other king (:9,10). In the parable, this star proudly decides to “ascend (higher) into heaven...exalt my throne above the (other) stars of God” (:13). “The stars of God” can refer to the leaders of Israel (Gen. 37:9; Joel 3:15; Dan. 8:10). Because of this, the star is cast down to the earth. The star represents the king of Babylon. Daniel chapter 4 explains how Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon had a pride which reached unto heaven (Dan. 4:.22). Because of this made as an animal (Dan. 4:33). This sudden humbling of one of the world’s most powerful men to a deranged lunatic was such a dramatic event as to call for the parable about the falling of the morning star from heaven to earth. Stars are symbolic of powerful people (Gen. 37:9; Is. 13:10; Ez. 32:7). Ascending to heaven and falling from heaven are Biblical idioms often used for increasing in pride and being humbled (Job 20:6; Jer. 51:53; Lam. 2:1; Mt. 11:23. Is. 14:8 records the relief that now the “Lucifer” figure would no longer cut down cedars in Lebanon and hew mountains. This is exactly the language used by Nebuchadnezzar: “What no former king had done, I achieved: I cut through steep mountains, I split rocks, I opened passages and constructed a straight road for the transport of cedars... To Marduk, my king, mighty cedars... The abundant yield of the Lebanon”. Clearly the figure spoken of in Is. 14 was Nebuchadnezzar. 14:12 says that Lucifer was to be “cut down to the ground” – implying he was a tree. This provides a further link with Daniel 4:8–16, where Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon are likened to a tree being cut down.