Isaiah 14:9-13

14:9 Sheol ¹  below is stirred up about you,

ready to meet you when you arrive.

It rouses ²  the spirits of the dead for you,

all the former leaders of the earth; ³ 

it makes all the former kings of the nations

rise from their thrones. ⁴ 

14:10 All of them respond to you, saying:

‘You too have become weak like us!

You have become just like us!

14:11 Your splendor ⁵  has been brought down to Sheol,

as well as the sound of your stringed instruments. ⁶ 

You lie on a bed of maggots,

with a blanket of worms over you. ⁷ 

14:12 Look how you have fallen from the sky,

O shining one, son of the dawn! ⁸ 

You have been cut down to the ground,

O conqueror ⁹  of the nations! ¹⁰ 

14:13 You said to yourself, ¹¹ 

“I will climb up to the sky.

Above the stars of El ¹² 

I will set up my throne.

I will rule on the mountain of assembly

on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ¹³ 

[14:9]  ¹ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead.

[14:9]  ² 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.

[14:9]  ³ tn Heb “all the rams of the earth.” The animal epithet is used metaphorically here for leaders. See HALOT 903 s.v. *עַתּוּד.

[14:9]  ⁴ 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.

[14:11]  ⁵ tn Or “pride” (NCV, CEV); KJV, NIV, NRSV “pomp.”

[14:11]  ⁶ tn Or “harps” (NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “under you maggots are spread out, and worms are your cover.”

[14:12]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew text has הֵילֵל בֶּן־שָׁחַר (helel ben-shakhar, “Helel son of Shachar”), which is probably a name for the morning star (Venus) or the crescent moon. See HALOT 245 s.v. הֵילֵל.

[14:12]  ⁹ tn Some understand the verb to from חָלַשׁ (khalash, “to weaken”), but HALOT 324 s.v. II חלשׁ proposes a homonym here, meaning “to defeat.”

[14:12]  ¹⁰ sn In this line the taunting kings hint at the literal identity of the king, after likening him to the god Helel and a tree. The verb גָדַע (gada’, “cut down”) is used of chopping down trees in 9:10 and 10:33.

[14:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”

[14:13]  ¹² sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.

[14:13]  ¹³ sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.