Isaiah 14:9

14:9 Sheol below is stirred up about you,

ready to meet you when you arrive.

It rouses the spirits of the dead for you,

all the former leaders of the earth;

it makes all the former kings of the nations

rise from their thrones.

Isaiah 14:15

14:15 But you were brought down to Sheol,

to the remote slopes of the pit.


sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead.

tn Heb “arousing.” The form is probably a Polel infinitive absolute, rather than a third masculine singular perfect, for Sheol is grammatically feminine (note “stirred up”). See GKC 466 §145.t.

tn Heb “all the rams of the earth.” The animal epithet is used metaphorically here for leaders. See HALOT 903 s.v. *עַתּוּד.

tn Heb “lifting from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” הֵקִים (heqim, a Hiphil perfect third masculine singular) should be emended to an infinitive absolute (הָקֵים, haqem). See the note on “rouses” earlier in the verse.

tn The prefixed verb form is taken as a preterite. Note the use of perfects in v. 12 to describe the king’s downfall.

tn The Hebrew term בּוּר (bor, “cistern”) is sometimes used metaphorically to refer to the place of the dead or the entrance to the underworld.