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Isaiah 14

YHWH brings oppressive rulers down, establishes his purpose over the nations, and promises refuge for his afflicted people.

Isaiah announces that YHWH will restore Israel to its land, where foreigners will join them and former captors will become their servants. Israel is to voice a taunt against Babylon’s fallen king, whose claim to heavenly greatness ends in death and disgrace. YHWH declares the destruction of Babylon’s ruling line and promises to break Assyria’s yoke. A final oracle, dated to the year King Ahaz died, warns Philistia of further disaster and names Zion as refuge for God’s afflicted people.

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1For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.
2The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in the LORD’s land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
3It will happen in the day that the LORD will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,
4that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!”
5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
6who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained.
7The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out in song.
8Yes, the cypress trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us.”
9Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?”
11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.
12How you have fallen from heaven, shining one, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
13You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!”
15Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.
16Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms,
17who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”
18All the kings of the nations sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.
19But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.
20You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The offspring of evildoers will not be named forever.
21Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.
22“I will rise up against them,” says the LORD of Armies, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says the LORD.
23“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the LORD of Armies.
24The LORD of Armies has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.
26This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27For the LORD of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
28This burden was in the year that King Ahaz died.
29Don’t rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.
30The firstborn of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed.
31Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Isaiah 14:24YHWH’s oath grounds Assyria’s coming defeat in his settled purpose, which no ruler or nation can overturn.
Isaiah 14:12The fallen shining one depicts Babylon’s king stripped of the heavenly greatness he claimed for himself.
Isaiah 14:1Compassion for Jacob opens the chapter, placing the judgment of empires within God’s promise to restore his people.
Where this chapter reaches

Jeremiah and Revelation share Isaiah’s portrayal of Babylon brought down under God’s judgment, with its oppressive power ending in ruin. Ezekiel shares the imagery of a ruler’s exalted splendor collapsing into disgrace, exposing the distance between royal claims and human mortality.

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After reading the whole chapter

What stands out to you in the contrast between the king’s ambitions and his end?

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How does the promise of refuge in Zion shape your reading of the chapter’s judgments?

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Questions people ask about Isaiah 14

Is Isaiah 14:12 about Satan?

The taunt is addressed to the king of Babylon in verse 4, and verse 16 describes him as a man. The phrase “shining one, son of the dawn” portrays his spectacular fall. Some Christian interpreters also see Satan’s pride reflected here, though the passage itself names Babylon’s king as its subject.

Why does Isaiah 14:2 say Israel will possess servants?

Verse 2 portrays a reversal of captivity: Israel’s former oppressors become subject to those they enslaved. Its language includes possession of servants and handmaids, reflecting the harsh terms of ancient conquest. The verse belongs to a prophecy of Israel’s restoration; it supplies no command for readers to enslave others.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).