Isaiah 14:15

Isa 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Ver. 15. Yet thou shalt be brought down be hell.] To the counterpoint of thy haughtiest conceits, ad infimam erebi sedem. So a merry fellow said that Xerxes, that great warrior who took upon him to control the sea, was now mending old shoes under a shop board in hell.

To the sides of the pit,] i.e., Of the infernal lake: A tartesso in tartarum detrusus; { a} from the sides of the north, {Isa 14:13} whither thou hadst pierced thyself, ad latera luci, to the sides of the pit, and to an odd corner of the burying place. This was a foul fall, and worse than that of Hermannus Ferrariensis, who, having been canonised for a saint, was thirty years after unburied, and burnt for a heretic by Pope Boniface VIII, {b} or that of Thomas a Becket, of whom, forty-eight years after he had been sainted, it was disputed among the doctors of Paris whether he were damned or saved? {c}

{a} Adagium Homericum.

{b} Jac. Rev. Hist. Pontif., 195.

{c} Daniel’s History, fol. 99.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Isa 14:15-17. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell — To the grave, and the state of the dead; to the sides of the pit — And lodged there in the lowest state of misery and degradation. They that see thee — In this humbled and wretched state, shall narrowly look upon thee — As not knowing thee at first sight, and hardly believing their own eyes, because of this great alteration of thy condition, a change which, to them, seemed next to impossible. Is this the man that made the earth to tremble — All the nations of the earth? that did shake the kingdoms — At his pleasure? that made the world a wilderness — By slaying or carrying away captive its inhabitants, and destroying its produce: that opened not the house of his prisoners — That did not restore them to their own country, as Cyrus afterward did the Jews; but kept them in perpetual slavery, Jer 50:33. By this the prophet signifies both his irresistible power, and his continued cruelty.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14:15-17 This is a restatement of 14:9-11. The dead spirits inhabiting the place of the dead will be startled and amazed that the Babylonian king, who ruled the world with his merciless might, has absolutely no power in death.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

to hell--to Sheol (Isa 14:6), thou who hast said, "I will ascend into heaven" (Mat 11:23).

sides of the pit--antithetical to the "sides of the north" (Isa 14:13). Thus the reference is to the sides of the sepulcher round which the dead were arranged in niches. But MAURER here, as in Isa 14:13, translates, "the extreme," or innermost parts of the sepulchre: as in Eze 32:23 (compare Sa1 24:3).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(15) Yet thou shalt be brought . . .—We note in the use of the same words (“ the sides, or recesses,” of the pit), as in the previous verse, the contrast of an indignant sarcasm. Yes, the prophet seems to say, the proud king has found his way to those “recesses;” but they are not in heaven, but in Hades.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. thou shalt be brought down to Sheol] Such is the end of the “vaulting ambition that o’erleaps itself.” The Babylonian Hades (Aralu) seems to have been conceived as situated under the mountain of the gods. The pit means Sheol, and the sides of the pit are its inmost recesses, the most dismal part of a land of darkness. These apparently are reserved for those who have not obtained honourable burial on earth (see below on Isa_14:18-20).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell,.... Into a very low and miserable condition; see Mat 11:23 instead of ascending to heaven: or "to the grave"; though, inasmuch as afterwards a burial is denied him, the word may be taken for the infernal pit, and so is, as much as can be, opposed to heaven; and this will be true of antichrist, when the beast and false prophet will be cast alive into the lake of fire, Rev 19:20,

to the sides of the pit; instead of being on the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north; another word for hell, the pit of corruption, and the bottomless pit. The Targum is,

"to the ends of the lake of the house of perdition;''

the place of everlasting destruction.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell - Hebrew, ‘To sheol’ (compare Isa 14:9).

To the sides of the pit - The word ‘pit,’ here, is evidently synonymous with “hell” or “hades,” represented as a deep, dark region under ground. The dead were often buried in caves, and the descent was often dark and dreary, to the vaults where they reposed. Hence, it is always represented as going down; or, as the “inferior” regions. The ‘sides of the pit’ here stand opposed to the ‘sides of the north.’ He had sought to “ascend” to the one; he should be “brought down” to the other. The reference here is, doubtless, to the land of shades; to the dark and dismal regions where the departed dead are supposed to dwell - to “sheol.” So the parallelism proves. But the image or figure is taken from the custom of burying, where, in a deep natural cavern, or a sepulchre excavated from a rock, the dead were ranged around the “sides” of the cavern in niches or recesses excavated for that purpose (see the note at Isa 14:9).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Depth. Hebrew, "sides," (ver. 13.) or holes dug out of a cavern. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

15. Down to hell — To hades, as in Mat_11:23.

To the sides — To the recesses — the side burial places. The image is taken from the shelves and recesses of sepulchres.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou shalt be brought down; rather, thou art brought down (comp. vers. 9-11). The sides of the pit; or, the recesses the "lowest parts" of the pit. With those words the third stanza terminates.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But instead of being exalted to heaven, “thou shalt only be brought down to hell, to the depths of the pit.” Against the strict application of the last clause to the grave is the subsequent description of the royal body as unburied. But the imagery is unquestionably borrowed from the grave. Some understand by sides the horizontal excavations in the oriental sepulchres or catacombs. But according to its probable etymology the Hebrew word does not mean ‘sides’ in the ordinary sense, but rather ‘hinder parts’ and then remote parts or extremities, as it is explained by the Targum here and in v. 13. The specific reference may be either to extreme height, extreme distance, or extreme depth, according to the context. Here the last sense is required by the mention of the pit, and the word is accordingly translated in the Vulgate profundum.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah (1846–1847; New York: Scribner, 1870–1878) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

hell

Heb. "Sheol," Also; Is 14:9 (See Scofield "Hab 2:5").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Connecting Statement:

This is part of the taunt song that the Israelites will sing to the king of Babylon.

Yet you are now brought down to Sheol

This can be stated in active form. AT: "But now God has sent you down to Sheol" (See: Active or Passive)

Is this the man

The people will use this question either to mock the king of Babylon, or to express their shock at what has happened to him. AT: "Surely, this is not the man" (See: Rhetorical Question)

who made the earth tremble

Possible meanings are 1) the earth trembled as the king's army marched to conquer people, or 2) this refers to the people of the earth trembling in fear of him. (See: Metonymy)

shook kingdoms

Possible meanings are 1) this is a metaphor for "conquered kingdoms" or 2) this is metonymy for "terrified the people of kingdoms." (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)

who made the world like a wilderness

"who made the places where people lived into a wilderness"

translationWords

Hades

kingdom

world

desert

prison

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.