Isa 14:16-20 | JFB | STEP | 16. narrowly look —to be certain they are not mistaken. consider

Isaiah 14:16-20

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" (Isa 14:19). To be excluded from the family sepulcher was a mark of infamy (Isa 34:3; Jer 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].

Isa 14:21-23. GOD'S DETERMINATION TO DESTROY BABYLON.