Isaiah 14:22-32

14:22 “I will rise up against them,”

says the Lord who commands armies.

“I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people, ¹ 

including the offspring she produces,” ² 

says the Lord.

14:23 “I will turn her into a place that is overrun with wild animals ³ 

and covered with pools of stagnant water.

I will get rid of her, just as one sweeps away dirt with a broom,” ⁴ 

says the Lord who commands armies.

14:24 ⁵ The Lord who commands armies makes this solemn vow:

“Be sure of this:

Just as I have intended, so it will be;

just as I have planned, it will happen.

14:25 I will break Assyria ⁶  in my land,

I will trample them ⁷  underfoot on my hills.

Their yoke will be removed from my people,

the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. ⁸ 

14:26 This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth;

my hand is ready to strike all the nations.” ⁹ 

14:27 Indeed, ¹⁰  the Lord who commands armies has a plan,

and who can possibly frustrate it?

His hand is ready to strike,

and who can possibly stop it? ¹¹ 

The Lord Will Judge the Philistines

14:28 In the year King Ahaz died, ¹²  this message was revealed: ¹³ 

14:29 Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines,

just because the club that beat you has been broken! ¹⁴ 

For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root,

and its fruit will be a darting adder. ¹⁵ 

14:30 The poor will graze in my pastures; ¹⁶ 

the needy will rest securely.

But I will kill your root by famine;

it will put to death all your survivors. ¹⁷ 

14:31 Wail, O city gate!

Cry out, O city!

Melt with fear, ¹⁸  all you Philistines!

For out of the north comes a cloud of smoke,

and there are no stragglers in its ranks. ¹⁹ 

14:32 How will they respond to the messengers of this nation? ²⁰ 

Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure;

the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.

[14:22]  ¹ tn Heb “I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant” (ASV, NAB, and NRSV all similar).

[14:22]  ² tn Heb “descendant and child.”

[14:23]  ³ tn Heb “I will make her into a possession of wild animals.” It is uncertain what type of animal קִפֹּד (qippod) refers to. Some suggest a rodent (cf. NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”), others an owl (cf, NAB, NIV, TEV).

[14:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction.”

[14:24]  ⁵ sn Having announced the downfall of the Chaldean empire, the Lord appends to this prophecy a solemn reminder that the Assyrians, the major Mesopotamian power of Isaiah’s day, would be annihilated, foreshadowing what would subsequently happen to Babylon and the other hostile nations.

[14:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “to break Assyria.”

[14:25]  ⁷ tn Heb “him.” This is a collective singular referring to the nation, or a reference to the king of Assyria who by metonymy stands for the entire nation.

[14:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “and his [i.e., Assyria’s] yoke will be removed from them [the people?], and his [Assyria’s] burden from his [the nation’s?] shoulder will be removed.” There are no antecedents in this oracle for the suffixes in the phrases “from them” and “from his shoulder.” Since the Lord’s land and hills are referred to in the preceding line and the statement seems to echo 10:27, it is likely that God’s people are the referents of the suffixes; the translation uses “my people” to indicate this.

[14:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “and this is the hand that is outstretched over all the nations.”

[14:27]  ¹⁰ tn Or “For” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “His hand is outstretched and who will turn it back?”

[14:28]  ¹² sn Perhaps 715 b.c., but the precise date is uncertain.

[14:28]  ¹³ tn Heb “this oracle came.”

[14:29]  ¹⁴ sn The identity of this “club” (also referred to as a “serpent” in the next line) is uncertain. It may refer to an Assyrian king, or to Ahaz. For discussion see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:331-32. The viper/adder referred to in the second half of the verse is his successor.

[14:29]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “flying burning one.” The designation “burning one” may allude to the serpent’s appearance or the effect of its poisonous bite. (See the note at 6:2.) The qualifier “flying” probably refers to the serpent’s quick, darting movements, though one might propose a homonym here, meaning “biting.” (See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah [NICOT], 1:332, n. 18.) Some might think in terms of a mythological flying, fire breathing dragon (cf. NAB “a flying saraph”; CEV “a flying fiery dragon”), but this proposal does not make good sense in 30:6, where the phrase “flying burning one” appears again in a list of desert animals.

[14:30]  ¹⁶ tc The Hebrew text has, “the firstborn of the poor will graze.” “Firstborn” may be used here in an idiomatic sense to indicate the very poorest of the poor. See BDB 114 s.v. בְּכוֹר. The translation above assumes an emendation of בְּכוֹרֵי (bÿkhorey, “firstborn of”) to בְּכָרַי (bekharay, “in my pastures”).

[14:30]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “your remnant” (so NAB, NRSV).

[14:31]  ¹⁸ tn Or “despair” (see HALOT 555 s.v. מוג). The form נָמוֹג (namog) should be taken here as an infinitive absolute functioning as an imperative. See GKC 199-200 §72.v.

[14:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and there is no one going alone in his appointed places.” The meaning of this line is uncertain. בּוֹדֵד (boded) appears to be a participle from בָּדַד (badad, “be separate”; see BDB 94 s.v. בָּדַד). מוֹעָד (mo’ad) may mean “assembly” or, by extension, “multitude” (see HALOT 558 s.v. *מוֹעָד), but the referent of the third masculine pronominal suffix attached to the noun is unclear. It probably refers to the “nation” mentioned in the next line.

[14:32]  ²⁰ sn The question forces the Philistines to consider the dilemma they will face – surrender and oppression, or battle and death.