Isaiah 14:4-10 New English Translation
4 you will taunt the king of Babylon with these words:[a]
“Look how the oppressor has met his end!
Hostility[b] has ceased!
5 The Lord has broken the club of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers.
6 It[c] furiously struck down nations
with unceasing blows.[d]
It angrily ruled over nations,
oppressing them without restraint.[e]
7 The whole earth rests and is quiet;
they break into song.
8 The evergreens also rejoice over your demise,[f]
as do the cedars of Lebanon, singing,[g]
‘Since you fell asleep,[h]
no woodsman comes up to chop us down!’[i]
9 Sheol[j] below is stirred up about you,
ready to meet you when you arrive.
It rouses[k] the spirits of the dead for you,
all the former leaders of the earth;[l]
it makes all the former kings of the nations
rise from their thrones.[m]
10 All of them respond to you, saying:
‘You too have become weak like us!
You have become just like us!
Footnotes
- Isaiah 14:4 tn Heb “you will lift up this taunt over the king of Babylon, saying.”
- Isaiah 14:4 tc The word in the Hebrew text (מַדְהֵבָה, madhevah) is unattested elsewhere and of uncertain meaning. Many (following the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa) assume a confusion of dalet and resh (ד and ר) and emend the form to מַרְהֵבָה (marhevah, “onslaught”). See HALOT 548 s.v. II *מִדָּה and HALOT 633 s.v. *מַרְהֵבָה.
- Isaiah 14:6 tn Or perhaps, “he” (cf. KJV; NCV “the king of Babylon”). The present translation understands the referent of the pronoun (“it”) to be the “club/scepter” of the preceding line.
- Isaiah 14:6 tn Heb “it was striking down nations in fury [with] a blow without ceasing.” The participle (“striking down”) suggests repeated or continuous action in past time.
- Isaiah 14:6 tn Heb “it was ruling in anger nations [with] oppression without restraint.” The participle (“ruling”) suggests repeated or continuous action in past time.
- Isaiah 14:8 tn Heb “concerning you.”
- Isaiah 14:8 tn The word “singing” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. Note that the personified trees speak in the second half of the verse.
- Isaiah 14:8 tn Heb “lay down” (in death); cf. NAB “laid to rest.”
- Isaiah 14:8 tn Heb “the [wood]cutter does not come up against us.”
- Isaiah 14:9 sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead.
- Isaiah 14:9 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.
- Isaiah 14:9 tn Heb “all the rams of the earth.” The animal epithet is used metaphorically here for leaders. See HALOT 903 s.v. *עַתּוּד.
- Isaiah 14:9 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.
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