Isaiah 14:4-23 That you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!… This ode, if it is to be admired as it deserves, must be read as a whole: its perfection as a work of art, its picturesque imagery, the delicate and subtle vein of irony by which it is penetrated — it is called a "taunt song" — will not endure partial quotation or paraphrase. The line of thought is as follows. In the first strophe (vers. 4-8), the prophet declares exultingly how at length the tyrant is stilled, the earth is at peace; only the sound of rejoicing is heard. In the second (vers. 9-11), he accompanies in thought the Shade of the King of Babylon as it journeys to the Underworld, and imagines the ironical greeting which there meets it from the lips of the other kings — still, as on earth, supposed to be invested with the panoply of State. The third strophe (vers. 12-15) depicts the abasement of the Babylonian monarch in its full magnitude: he who would have joined the ranks of the gods, is east down to the inmost recesses of the pit. In the fourth and last strophe (ver. 16-20), the prophet's thought passes to the battlefield — from the feeble Shade to the unburied, dishonoured corpse: the passers-by express their amazement at the contrast which its fate presents to that of other kings after their death; it is excluded from the royal burial place, flung aside as a worthless bough, hidden amongst the bodies of slain, common soldiers, The prophet concludes with an epilogue, spoken in his own person, and re-asserting emphatically the final and irretrievable ruin of the great city (vers. 21-23). The best commentary on this prophecy is the long and impassioned invective against Babylon contained in Jeremiah 50:1-51:58. (Prof . E. R. Driver, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! |
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