Yesaya 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 

Yesaya 23:1-8

The Lord Will Judge Tyre

23:1 Here is a message about Tyre:

Wail, you large ships, ¹⁴ 

for the port is too devastated to enter! ¹⁵ 

From the land of Cyprus ¹⁶  this news is announced to them.

23:2 Lament, ¹⁷  you residents of the coast,

you merchants of Sidon ¹⁸  who travel over the sea,

whose agents sail over 23:3 the deep waters! ¹⁹ 

Grain from the Shihor region, ²⁰ 

crops grown near the Nile ²¹  she receives; ²² 

she is the trade center ²³  of the nations.

23:4 Be ashamed, O Sidon,

for the sea ²⁴  says this, O fortress of the sea:

“I have not gone into labor

or given birth;

I have not raised young men

or brought up young women.” ²⁵ 

23:5 When the news reaches Egypt,

they will be shaken by what has happened to Tyre. ²⁶ 

23:6 Travel to Tarshish!

Wail, you residents of the coast!

23:7 Is this really your boisterous city ²⁷ 

whose origins are in the distant past, ²⁸ 

and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

23:8 Who planned this for royal Tyre, ²⁹ 

whose merchants are princes,

whose traders are the dignitaries ³⁰  of the earth?

[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]  sn What is the background for the imagery in vv. 12-15? This whole section (vv. 4b-21) is directed to the king of Babylon, who is clearly depicted as a human ruler. Other kings of the earth address him in vv. 9ff., he is called “the man” in v. 16, and, according to vv. 19-20, he possesses a physical body. Nevertheless the language of vv. 12-15 has led some to see a dual referent in the taunt song. These verses, which appear to be spoken by other pagan kings to a pagan king (cf. vv. 9-11), contain several titles and motifs that resemble those of Canaanite mythology, including references to Helel son of Shachar, the stars of El, the mountain of assembly, the recesses of Zaphon, and the divine title Most High. Apparently these verses allude to a mythological story about a minor god (Helel son of Shachar) who tried to take over Zaphon, the mountain of the gods. His attempted coup failed and he was hurled down to the underworld. The king of Babylon is taunted for having similar unrealized delusions of grandeur. Some Christians have seen an allusion to the fall of Satan here, but this seems contextually unwarranted (see J. Martin, “Isaiah,” BKCOT, 1061).

[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.

[23:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “ships of Tarshish.” This probably refers to large ships either made in or capable of traveling to the distant western port of Tarshish.

[23:1]  ¹⁵ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for it is destroyed, from a house, from entering.” The translation assumes that the mem (מ) on בַּיִת (bayit) was originally an enclitic mem suffixed to the preceding verb. This assumption allows one to take בַּיִת as the subject of the preceding verb. It is used in a metaphorical sense for the port city of Tyre. The preposition min (מִן) prefixed to בּוֹא (bo’) indicates negative consequence: “so that no one can enter.” See BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7.b.

[23:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the Kittim,” a designation for the people of Cyprus. See HALOT 504-05 s.v. כִּתִּיִּים.

[23:2]  ¹⁷ tn Or “keep quiet”; NAB “Silence!”

[23:2]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map1 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.

[23:3]  ¹⁹ tc The Hebrew text (23:2b-3a) reads literally, “merchant of Sidon, the one who crosses the sea, they filled you, and on the deep waters.” Instead of מִלְאוּךְ (mil’ukh, “they filled you”) the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads מלאכיך (“your messengers”). The translation assumes an emendation of מִלְאוּךְ to מַלְאָכָו (mal’akhav, “his messengers”), taking the vav (ו) on וּבְמַיִם (uvÿmayim) as improperly placed; instead it should be the final letter of the preceding word.

[23:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “seed of Shihor.” “Shihor” probably refers to the east branch of the Nile. See Jer 2:18 and BDB 1009 s.v. שִׁיחוֹר.

[23:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “the harvest of the Nile.”

[23:3]  ²² tn Heb “[is] her revenue.”

[23:3]  ²³ tn Heb “merchandise”; KJV, ASV “a mart of nations”; NLT “the merchandise mart of the world.”

[23:4]  ²⁴ tn J. N. Oswalt (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:430-31) sees here a reference to Yam, the Canaanite god of the sea. He interprets the phrase מָעוֹז הַיָּם (ma’oz hayyam, “fortress of the sea”) as a title of Yam, translating “Mighty One of the Sea.” A more traditional view is that the phrase refers to Sidon.

[23:4]  ²⁵ tn Or “virgins” (KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[23:4]  sn The sea is personified here as a lamenting childless woman. The foreboding language anticipates the following announcement of Tyre’s demise, viewed here as a child of the sea, as it were.

[23:5]  ²⁶ tn Heb “they will be in pain at the report of Tyre.”

[23:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Is this to you, boisterous one?” The pronoun “you” is masculine plural, like the imperatives in v. 6, so it is likely addressed to the Egyptians and residents of the coast. “Boisterous one” is a feminine singular form, probably referring to the personified city of Tyre.

[23:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in the days of antiquity [is] her beginning.”

[23:8]  ²⁹ tn The precise meaning of הַמַּעֲטִירָה (hamma’atirah) is uncertain. The form is a Hiphil participle from עָטַר (’atar), a denominative verb derived from עֲטָרָה (’atarah, “crown, wreath”). The participle may mean “one who wears a crown” or “one who distributes crowns.” In either case, Tyre’s prominence in the international political arena is in view.

[23:8]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the honored” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “renowned.”