Isa 14:16-20 | JFB | STEP | 16. narrowly look-- to be certain they are not mistaken. consider-- "meditate upon" [Horsley].

‏ Isaiah 14:16-20

Is 14:16-20. The Passers-by Contemplate with Astonishment the Body of the King of Babylon Cast Out, Instead of Lying in a Splendid Mausoleum, and Can Hardly Believe Their Senses that It Is He.

16. narrowly look--to be certain they are not mistaken.

consider--"meditate upon" [Horsley].

17. opened not ... house ... prisoners--But Maurer, as Margin, "Did not let his captives loose homewards."

18. All--that is, This is the usual practice.

in glory--in a grand mausoleum.

house--that is, "sepulchre," as in Ec 12:5; "grave" (Is 14:19). To be excluded from the family sepulcher was a mark of infamy (Is 34:3; Jr 22:19; 1Ki 13:22; 2Ch 21:20; 24:25; 28:27).

19. cast out of--not that he had lain in the grave and was then cast out of it, but "cast out without a grave," such as might have been expected by thee ("thy").

branch--a useless sucker starting up from the root of a tree, and cut away by the husbandman.

raiment of those ... slain--covered with gore, and regarded with abhorrence as unclean by the Jews. Rather, "clothed (that is, covered) with the slain"; as in Job 7:5, "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust" [Maurer].

thrust through--that is, "the slain who have been thrust through," &c.

stones of ... pit--whose bodies are buried in sepulchres excavated amidst stones, whereas the king of Babylon is an unburied "carcass trodden under foot."

20. not ... joined with them--whereas the princes slain with thee shall be buried, thou shalt not.

thou ... destroyed ... land--Belshazzar (or Naboned) oppressed his land with wars and tyranny, so that he was much hated [Xenophon, Cyropædia 4.6, 3; 7.5, 32].

seed ... never be renowned--rather, "shall not be named for ever"; the Babylonian dynasty shall end with Belshazzar; his family shall not be perpetuated [Horsley].