Isaiah 14:18

All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(18) All the kings of the nations . . .—The “house” in which the monarchs lie is, of course, their sepulchre. Such sepulchres, as in the case of the pyramid graves of the Egyptian kings, the “eternal home” as they themselves called it (comp. Ecclesiastes 12:5), were often almost literally the “house,” or palace, of the dead.

Benson Commentary

Isaiah 14:18-20. All the kings of the nations — That is, other kings generally; lie in glory, &c. — Are buried in their own sepulchres, having stately monuments erected to their memory. The persons who are represented as uttering these words are supposed to have before their eyes the carcass of the king of Babylon, lying on the bare ground among the common slain, greatly disfigured and covered with blood and wounds. But thou art cast out of thy grave — Deprived of a grave, or burying-place. Which very probably happened to Belshazzar, who, according to Daniel 5:30, was slain in the night in which the city was taken by Cyrus, when his people had neither opportunity nor heart to bestow an honourable interment upon him, and the conquerors would not suffer them to do it. Like an abominable branch — Like a rotten twig of a tree, which he that prunes the trees, casts away: and as raiment of those that are slain — Which, being mangled, and besmeared with mire and blood, is cast away with contempt. That go down to the pit — Who, being slain, are cast into some pit. He saith, to the stones of the pit, because when dead bodies are cast in thither, men use to throw a heap of stones upon them. As a carcass trodden under feet — Neglected, like such a carcass. And this might literally happen to Belshazzar’s dead body. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial — Not buried, as they are. Because thou hast slain thy people — Thou hast exercised great tyranny and cruelty, not only to thine enemies, but even to thine own subjects. The seed of evil-doers — Such as Belshazzar was, being descended from that Nebuchadnezzar who had made such horrid slaughters and devastations in the world, merely to gratify his own insatiable lusts, and who had been so impious toward God and his temple, and so bloody toward his church and people; shall never be renowned — Or, shall not be renowned for ever: although I have long borne with thee and thy family.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:1-23 The whole plan of Divine Providence is arranged with a view to the good of the people of God. A settlement in the land of promise is of God's mercy. Let the church receive those whom God receives. God's people, wherever their lot is cast, should endeavour to recommend religion by a right and winning conversation. Those that would not be reconciled to them, should be humbled by them. This may be applied to the success of the gospel, when those were brought to obey it who had opposed it. God himself undertakes to work a blessed change. They shall have rest from their sorrow and fear, the sense of their present burdens, and the dread of worse. Babylon abounded in riches. The king of Babylon having the absolute command of so much wealth, by the help of it ruled the nations. This refers especially to the people of the Jews; and it filled up the measure of the king of Babylon's sins. Tyrants sacrifice their true interest to their lusts and passions. It is gracious ambition to covet to be like the Most Holy, for he has said, Be ye holy, for I am holy; but it is sinful ambition to aim to be like the Most High, for he has said, He who exalts himself shall be abased. The devil thus drew our first parents to sin. Utter ruin should be brought upon him. Those that will not cease to sin, God will make to cease. He should be slain, and go down to the grave; this is the common fate of tyrants. True glory, that is, true grace, will go up with the soul to heaven, but vain pomp will go down with the body to the grave; there is an end of it. To be denied burial, if for righteousness' sake, may be rejoiced in, Mt 5:12. But if the just punishment of sin, it denotes that impenitent sinners shall rise to everlasting shame and contempt. Many triumphs should be in his fall. God will reckon with those that disturb the peace of mankind. The receiving the king of Babylon into the regions of the dead, shows there is a world of spirits, to which the souls of men remove at death. And that souls have converse with each other, though we have none with them; and that death and hell will be death and hell indeed, to all who fall unholy, from the height of this world's pomps, and the fulness of its pleasures. Learn from all this, that the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. The royal city is to be ruined and forsaken. Thus the utter destruction of the New Testament Babylon is illustrated, Re 18:2. When a people will not be made clean with the besom of reformation, what can they expect but to be swept off the face of the earth with the besom of destruction?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

All the kings of the nations - That is, this is the common way in which the kings are buried.

Lie in glory - They lie in a magnificent mausoleum; they are surrounded with splendor even in their tombs. It is well known that vast sums of money were expended to rear magnificent mausoleums as the burial place of kings. With this design, probably, the pyramids of Egypt were reared; and the temple of Bel in Babylon, we are told, was employed for this purpose. Josephus says that vast quantities of money were buried in the sepulchre of David. The kings of Israel were buried in a royal burying place on Mount Zion 2 Chronicles 21:20; 2 Chronicles 35:24; Nehemiah 3:16. For a description of the sepulchre of David, and of sepulchres in general, "see" Calmet's "Dict." Art. "Sepulchre" (compare Ezekiel 32.)

Every one in his own house - In a sepulchre constructed for himself. It was usual for kings to have a splendid tomb constructed for themselves.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. All—that is, This is the usual practice.

in glory—in a grand mausoleum.

house—that is, "sepulchre," as in Ec 12:5; "grave" (Isa 14:19). To be excluded from the family sepulcher was a mark of infamy (Isa 34:3; Jer 22:19; 1Ki 13:22; 2Ch 21:20; 24:25; 28:27).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

All of them; other kings most commonly do, as the word all is frequently used.

Every one in his own house; are buried in their own sepulchres, having stately monuments erected to their honour and memory.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

All the kings of the nations,.... Of other nations, besides those he governed, and even of those whom he had subdued, at least their ancestors, the greatest part of them however; for the word "all" does not always signify every individual, though by the repetition of it, it here bids fair for such a sense, there being but very few, or scarce any exceptions to this observation; for, on some account or another, both good and bad kings are interred in great state:

even all of them lie in glory; in rich tombs and stately monuments, erected for the honour of them; and where they "sleep", as the word signifies, with their fathers, their ancestors, and are at rest, in the state of the dead, where they will continue to the resurrection:

everyone in his own house; or grave, see Job 30:23 the same with his long home, Ecclesiastes 12:5 or the house of his world: in reference to which, the Targum paraphrases it by the same phrase here; and though their graves were not in their dwelling houses or palaces, yet often near them, and in their own country, and were what had been erected, or caused to be erected by them, in their lifetime.

Geneva Study Bible

All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. every one in his own house] This yields a perfectly good sense as it stands, the “house” being the tomb prepared by the king in his lifetime. But it forms a short half-line where a long one is required by the measure; hence the proposal to transfer the words to Isaiah 14:17 (see on that verse).

18, 19. The contrast here is that between the honourable burial accorded to other kings and the indignity to which the king of Babylon is subjected by being deprived of sepulchral rites.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - All the kings of the nations, etc.; i.e. the other kings, speaking generally, died in peace, and had an honorable burial, each one in the sepulcher that he had prepared for himself as his final abode or "house" (comp. Isaiah 22:16). The care taken to prepare tombs was not confined to Egypt, though there obtaining its greatest development. Among others, the Persian kings certainly prepared their own sepulchers; and probably the practice was general. Isaiah 14:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The prophet, whose own words now follow the words of the spectators, proceeds to describe the state in which the tyrant lies, and which calls for such serious reflections. "All the kings of the nations, they are all interred in honour, every one in his house: but thou art cast away far from thy sepulchre like a shoot hurled away, clothed with slain, with those pierced through with the sword, those that go down to the stones of the pit; like a carcase trodden under feet." Every other king was laid out after his death "in his house" (b'bēthō), i.e. within the limits of his own palace; but the Chaldean lay far away from the sepulchre that was apparently intended for him. The מן in מקברך signifies procul ab, as in Numbers 15:24; Proverbs 20:3. He lies there like nētzer nith‛âb, i.e., like a branch torn off from the tree, that has withered and become offensive, or rather (as neetzer does not mean a branch, but a shoot) like a side-shoot that has been cut off the tree and thrown away with disgust as ugly, useless, and only a hindrance to the regular growth of the tree (possibly also an excrescence); nith‛âb (cast away) is a pregnant expression, signifying "cast away with disgust." The place where he lies is the field of battle. A vaticinium post eventum would be expressed differently from this, as Luzzatto has correctly observed. For what Seder 'Olam says - namely, that Nebuchadnezzar's corpse was taken out of the grave by Evilmerodach, or as Abravanel relates it, by the Medo-Persian conquerors - is merely a conclusion drawn from the passage before us, and would lead us to expect הוצת rather than השלכת. It is a matter of indifference, so far as the truth of the prophecy is concerned, whether it was fulfilled in the person of Nebuchadnezzar I, or of that second Nebuchadnezzar who gave himself out as a son of Nabonet, and tried to restore the freedom of Babylon. The scene which passes before the mind of the prophet is the field of battle. To clear this they made a hole and throw stones (abnē-bor, stones of the pit) on the top, without taking the trouble to shovel in the earth; but the king of Babylon is left lying there, like a carcase that is trampled under foot, and deserves nothing better than to be trampled under foot (mūbâs, part. hoph. of būs, conculcare). They do not even think him worth throwing into a hole along with the rest of the corpses.