Isa 14:4 | JFB | STEP | 4. proverb —The Orientals, having few books, embodied their thoughts in weighty, figurative, briefly expressed gnomes. Here a taunting song of triumph ( ). the king —the ideal representative of Babylon; perhaps Belshazzar ( ). The mystical Babylon is ultimately meant. golden city —rather, "the exactress of gold" [MAURER ]. But the old translators read differently in the Hebrew, "oppression," which the parallelism favors (compare ).

Isaiah 14:4

4. proverb—The Orientals, having few books, embodied their thoughts in weighty, figurative, briefly expressed gnomes. Here a taunting song of triumph (Mic 2:4; Hab 2:6).

the king—the ideal representative of Babylon; perhaps Belshazzar (Da 5:1-31). The mystical Babylon is ultimately meant.

golden city—rather, "the exactress of gold" [MAURER]. But the old translators read differently in the Hebrew, "oppression," which the parallelism favors (compare Isa 3:5).