Book of Isaiah, chapter 14
Isaiah 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the Book of Isaiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Isaiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets.
Text
The original text was written in Hebrew language. In English and most other languages, this chapter is divided into 32 verses.
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008).
Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (3rd century BCE or later):
- 1QIsaa: complete
- 4QIsac (4Q57): extant verses 1-5, 13
- 4QIsal (4Q65): extant verses 1‑12, 21‑24
- 4QIsao (4Q68): extant verses 28‑32
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; Q; 6th century).
Parashot
The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex.[4] Isaiah 14 is a part of the Prophecies about the Nations (Isaiah 13–23). {P}: open parashah; {S}: closed parashah.
- [{S} 13:6-22] 14:1-2 {S} 14:3-27 {P} 14:28-32 {P}
The restoration of Jacob (14:1–3)
Verse 1
- For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.[5]
- "For": from the Hebrew word כִּי, ki, at the start of the verse as 'asseverative' ("certainly"), emphasizing the Lord's desire to restore his people as one of the reasons for Babylon's demise (Isaiah 13:22b).[6]
Verse 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.[7]
Verse 3
- And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,[8]
The Parable against the King of Babylon (14:4–21)
The mashal,[9] or the parable against the king of Babylon is the oracle revealed to Isaiah the prophet. It is also considered a proverb. The parable is 18 verses long from verse 4 to verse 21.
Hebrew Text
The following table shows the Hebrew text[10][11] of Isaiah 14:4-21[12] with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the JPS 1917 translation (now in the public domain).
Trivia
The song in verses 4b–21 could be secondarily applied to Sargon II, who died in 705 BCE and whose body was never recovered from the battlefield and thus never buried. Here, Sargon ("King of Assyria" in Isaiah 20:1) is called the "King of Babylon" because from 710–707 BCE he ruled in Babylon and even reckoned his regnal year on this basis (as seen in Cyprus Stela, II. 21–22).[13]
Verse 12
- "How you are fallen from heaven,
- O Lucifer, son of the morning!
- How you are cut down to the ground,
- You who weakened the nations!"[14]
- "Fallen from heaven": see Luke 10:15, 18 for the words of Jesus regarding the War in Heaven.
- "Lucifer" or "Daystar" (Hebrew: הילל, romanized: hēlēl, from Hebrew: הלל, romanized: hālal, "to shine"). The Septuagint renders it Ἑωσφόρος Heōsphoros, and Jerome in the Vulgate, "Lucifer, the morning star"; in the Chaldee, "How art thou fallen from high, who wert splendid among the sons of men." The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests the correlation with "a Canaanite myth of the gods Helel and Shahar (Morning Star and Dawn), who fall from heaven as a result of rebellion."[15]
Verse 19
- But you are cast out of your grave
- Like an abominable branch,
- Like the garment of those who are slain,
- Thrust through with a sword,
- Who go down to the stones of the pit,
- Like a corpse trodden underfoot.[16]
- "Abominable branch": "despised branch"[17] or "like a shoot that is abhorred", where "branch" or "shoot" is from Hebrew word נֵצֶר, netser (cf. Isaiah 11:1), here may refer to 'a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away'.[18]
- "Thrust": "pierced"[19]
Destruction of Babylon, Assyria and Philistia (14:22–32)
Verse 29
- Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
- Because the rod that struck you is broken;
- For out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper,
- And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.[20]
- "Philistia": from Hebrew: פְלֶ֙שֶׁת֙, p̄ə-le-šeṯ,[21] KJV renders it as "Palestina", not in the wider meaning as today, but specifically as 'the country of the Philistines'.[22]
See also
References
- ^ As implemented in the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 edition of the Hebrew Bible in English.
- ^ Isaiah 14:1 KJV
- ^ Note [a] on Isaiah 14:1 in NET Bible
- ^ Isaiah 14:2 KJV
- ^ Isaiah 14:3 KJV
- ^ "Klein Dictionary - מָשָׁל". Sefaria.org.
- ^ "Isaiah – Chapter 14". Mechon Mamre.
- ^ "Isaiah 14:4 - JPS 1917". Sefaria.org.
- ^ Isaiah 14:4–21 KJV
- ^ Younger, K. Lawson Jr. (2003). "Recent Study on Sargon II, King of Assyria: implications for Biblical studies". In Chavalas, Mark W.; Younger, K. Lawson Jr. (eds.). Mesopotamia and the Bible. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies). Vol. 341 (reprint ed.). A&C Black. p. 319. ISBN 978-0-567-08231-2.
- ^ Isaiah 14:12 NKJV
- ^ The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Augmented Third Edition, New Revised Standard Version, Indexed. Michael D. Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, Editors. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2007. pp. 998-1000 Hebrew Bible. ISBN 978-0-19-528881-0
- ^ Isaiah 14:19 NKJV
- ^ Note [a] on Isaiah 14:19 in NKJV
- ^ Note [e] on Isaiah 14:19 in NET Bible
- ^ Note [b] on Isaiah 14:19 in NKJV
- ^ Isaiah 14:29 NKJV
- ^ Hebrew Text Analysis: Isaiah 14:29. Biblehub
- ^ Ellicott, C. J. (Ed.) Ellicott's Bible Commentary for English Readers. Isaiah 14. London : Cassell and Company, Limited, [1905-1906] Online version: (OCoLC) 929526708. Accessed 28 April 2019.
Bibliography
- Ulrich, Eugene, ed. (2010). The Biblical Qumran Scrolls: Transcriptions and Textual Variants. Brill.
- Würthwein, Ernst (1995). The Text of the Old Testament. Translated by Rhodes, Erroll F. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
External links
- Isaiah 14 Hebrew with Parallel English
- Isaiah 14 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate Archived 2016-07-04 at the Wayback Machine