First light in an empty palace court of blue glazed brick in Babylon: great doors standing open, an empty platform where a throne stood, swallows along the flat top of the wall.

The nations judged

Isaiah 14

When a tyrant falls, even the trees sing. What does God’s justice sound like?

32 verses≈ 6 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earthChapter 14
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

Restoration for Israel

Isaiah

For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land.

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Isaiah

Isaiah

The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.

Isaiah

The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.

The Fall of the King of Babylon

Isaiah

On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced, you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has ceased,

and how his fury has ended!

Isaiah

Early morning on a cracked pavement of blue glazed brick: a royal mace-scepter of dark wood and gold snapped in two and lying in the dust by an empty platform.

The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of the rulers.

Isaiah

It struck the peoples in anger

with unceasing blows;

it subdued the nations in rage

with relentless persecution.

Isaiah

Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanon

exult over you:

“Since you have been laid low,

no woodcutter comes against us.”

Isaiah

Sheol beneath is eager

to meet you upon your arrival.

It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—

all the rulers of the earth.

It makes all the kings of the nations

rise from their thrones.

Isaiah

They will all respond to you, saying,

“You too have become weak, as we are;

you have become like us!”

Isaiah

Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol,

along with the music of your harps.

Maggots are your bed

and worms your blanket.

Question

Quick question

The song is sung over “the king of Babylon” (verse 4), all the way down to the grave. Its next stanza gives him a name.

What does the song call the king of Babylon in verse 12?

Isaiah

Gray before dawn over the flat Babylonian plain: the morning star alone and very bright low in the east, the horizon warming beneath it, a city’s long dark walls and small ziggurat on the plain.

How you have fallen from heaven,

O day star, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the ground,

O destroyer of nations.

Isaiah

You said in your heart:

“I will ascend to the heavens;

I will raise my throne

above the stars of God.

I will sit on the mount of assembly,

in the far reaches of the north.

Isaiah

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”

Isaiah

But you will be brought down to Sheol,

to the lowest depths of the Pit.

Isaiah

Gray morning in an empty mud-brick court: a tall carved stone stela of a king in a long robe and rounded cap, worn smooth and faceless, toppled and cracked across in the dust, weeds at its base.

Those who see you will stare;

they will ponder your fate:

“Is this the man who shook the earth

and made the kingdoms tremble,

who turned the world into a desert

and destroyed its cities,

who refused to let the captives

return to their homes?”

Isaiah

All the kings of the nations lie in state,

each in his own tomb.

Isaiah

But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch,

covered by those slain with the sword,

and dumped into a rocky pit

like a carcass trampled underfoot.

Isaiah

You will not join them in burial,

since you have destroyed your land

and slaughtered your own people.

The offspring of the wicked

will never again be mentioned.

Isaiah

Prepare a place to slaughter his sons

for the iniquities of their forefathers.

They will never rise up to possess a land

or cover the earth with their cities.

God

“I will rise up against them,”

declares the LORD of Hosts.

“I will cut off from Babylon

her name and her remnant,

her offspring and her posterity,”

declares the LORD.

God

Dusk over marshland where a city stood: still pools among low mounds of melted mud brick, tall reeds, an owl on a broken stub of wall.

“I will make her a place

for owls and for swamplands;

I will sweep her away

with the broom of destruction,”

declares the LORD of Hosts.

0:09

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

LORD, You break the staff of the wicked and give rest to the oppressed. Keep me from saying in my heart, “I will ascend,” and let me bow to You, the Most High. Amen.

God’s Purpose against Assyria

God

The LORD of Hosts has sworn:

“Surely, as I have planned, so will it be;

as I have purposed, so will it stand.

God

God

I will break Assyria in My land;

I will trample him on My mountain.

His yoke will be taken off My people,

and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

Isaiah

This is the plan devised for the whole earth,

and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.

Isaiah

The LORD of Hosts has purposed,

and who can thwart Him?

His hand is outstretched,

so who can turn it back?

Isaiah 14:27

Philistia Will Be Destroyed

In the year that King Ahaz died, this burden was received:

God

Harsh noon on dusty coastal ground: a broken wooden rod lying in two pieces, and beside it a real horned desert viper coiled on the sand, small and still.

Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,

that the rod that struck you is broken.

For a viper will spring from the root of the snake,

and a flying serpent from its egg.

God

Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture,

and the needy will lie down in safety,

but I will kill your root by famine,

and your remnant will be slain.

Isaiah

Isaiah

Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city!

Melt away, all you Philistines!

For a cloud of smoke comes from the north,

and there are no stragglers in its ranks.

Isaiah

What answer will be given

to the envoys of that nation?

“The LORD has founded Zion,

where His afflicted people will find refuge.”

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 14

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A verse to carry with you

The LORD of Hosts has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is outstretched, so who can turn it back?

Isaiah 14:27

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