Wednesday Bible Study: It gets complicated

Chapter 14 contains some famous language, but it's pretty much universally misrepresented. First, I need to correct what was apparently a mistake in my previous post. When Isaiah refers to Babylon, as he does here and in the previous chapter, he really means Assyria. Sargon, the Assyrian king, established his throne in Babylon in 710 BC. At the time, Babylon was a tributary kingdom of Assyria. The tables were turned later. So this probably was written at about that time. 

The entity described beginning at verse 12, called Lucifer in the KJV and "morning star" in the NIV, is presumed by Christians to be Satan. However, this is actually a reference to a Canaanite myth of the gods Morning Star and Dawn -- two different beings -- who fall from heaven as a result of a rebellion. Isaiah also prophecies that other peoples will become slaves of Judah. That never happened, obviously. Finally, Isaiah warns the Philistines, Judah's perennial enemy, not to celebrate the death of king Azaz, because Judah is going to defeat them anyway. So, once again, this is all about current events in the Levant. It is not about a Messiah coming 700 years later.

14 The Lord will have compassion on Jacob;
    once again he will choose Israel
    and will settle them in their own land.
Foreigners will join them
    and unite with the descendants of Jacob.
² Nations will take them
    and bring them to their own place.
And Israel will take possession of the nations
    and make them male and female servants in the Lord’s land.
They will make captives of their captors
    and rule over their oppressors.

³ On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you, ⁴ you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has come to an end!
    How his fury^[a] has ended!
⁵ The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked,
    the scepter of the rulers,
⁶ which in anger struck down peoples
    with unceasing blows,
and in fury subdued nations
    with relentless aggression.
⁷ All the lands are at rest and at peace;
    they break into singing.
⁸ Even the junipers and the cedars of Lebanon
    gloat over you and say,
“Now that you have been laid low,
    no one comes to cut us down.”

⁹ The realm of the dead below is all astir
    to meet you at your coming;
it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you—
    all those who were leaders in the world;
it makes them rise from their thrones—
    all those who were kings over the nations.
¹⁰ They will all respond,
    they will say to you,
“You also have become weak, as we are;
    you have become like us.”
¹¹ All your pomp has been brought down to the grave,
    along with the noise of your harps;
maggots are spread out beneath you
    and worms cover you.

¹² How you have fallen from heaven,
    morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
    you who once laid low the nations!
¹³ You said in your heart,
    “I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
    above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
    on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.^[b]
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
    I will make myself like the Most High.”
¹⁵ But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
    to the depths of the pit.

¹⁶ Those who see you stare at you,
    they ponder your fate:
“Is this the man who shook the earth
    and made kingdoms tremble,
¹⁷ the man who made the world a wilderness,
    who overthrew its cities
    and would not let his captives go home?”

¹⁸ All the kings of the nations lie in state,
    each in his own tomb.
¹⁹ But you are cast out of your tomb
    like a rejected branch;
you are covered with the slain,
    with those pierced by the sword,
    those who descend to the stones of the pit.
Like a corpse trampled underfoot,
²⁰     you will not join them in burial,
for you have destroyed your land
    and killed your people.

Let the offspring of the wicked
    never be mentioned again.
²¹ Prepare a place to slaughter his children
    for the sins of their ancestors;
they are not to rise to inherit the land
    and cover the earth with their cities.

²² “I will rise up against them,”
    declares the Lord Almighty.
“I will wipe out Babylon’s name and survivors,
    her offspring and descendants,”
declares the Lord.
²³ “I will turn her into a place for owls
    and into swampland;
I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,”
    declares the Lord Almighty.

²⁴ The Lord Almighty has sworn,

“Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
    and as I have purposed, so it will happen.
²⁵ I will crush the Assyrian in my land;
    on my mountains I will trample him down.
His yoke will be taken from my people,
    and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

²⁶ This is the plan determined for the whole world;
    this is the hand stretched out over all nations.
²⁷ For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him?
    His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

A Prophecy Against the Philistines

²⁸ This prophecy came in the year King Ahaz died:

²⁹ Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
    that the rod that struck you is broken;
from the root of that snake will spring up a viper,
    its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.
³⁰ The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
    and the needy will lie down in safety.
But your root I will destroy by famine;
    it will slay your survivors.

³¹ Wail, you gate! Howl, you city!
    Melt away, all you Philistines!
A cloud of smoke comes from the north,
    and there is not a straggler in its ranks.
³² What answer shall be given
    to the envoys of that nation?
“The Lord has established Zion,
    and in her his afflicted people will find refuge.”

Footnotes

1. Isaiah 14:4 Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint and Syriac; the meaning of the word in the Masoretic Text is uncertain.
2. Isaiah 14:13 Or of the north; Zaphon was the most sacred mountain of the Canaanites.