Bible Strands
Isaiah 14:18
All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet declares the fate of the fallen Babylonian ruler, contrasting his disgrace with the honorable burial granted to other rulers. This statement follows a description of the tyrant's city-destroying arrogance and immediately precedes a graphic account of his own rejected grave.
The words — The Hebrew phrase שָׁכְבוּ בְכָבוֹד (sha.khe.Vu ve./kha.Vod) literally means "they have lain down in splendor." Each ruler is specified as resting בְּבֵיתוֹ (be./vei.T/o), "in his own house," denoting a proper, honored tomb.
The thread — This contrast between honored burial and dishonorable abandonment parallels the burial of Jehoiada among the kings (2 Chronicles 24:16) and the universal certainty of death in Job 30:23. The passage structurally opposes the tyrant's fate as a rejected branch cast into a rocky pit (Isaiah 14:19).
Why it lands — The text establishes that military conquest and political power do not grant immunity from death or guarantee a dishonorable end. It demands recognition that earthly authority remains subject to divine judgment and the fixed boundaries of human mortality.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 24:16 And Jehoiada was buried with the kings in the City of David, because he had done what was good in Israel for God and His temple.
- 2 Chronicles 24:25 And when the Arameans had withdrawn, they left Joash severely wounded. His own servants conspired against him for shedding the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him on his bed. So he died and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
- Job 30:23 Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
- Isaiah 22:16 What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?
- Ezekiel 32:18 “Son of man, wail for the multitudes of Egypt, and consign her and the daughters of the mighty nations to the depths of the earth with those who descend to the Pit:
- Ecclesiastes 6:3 A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
- Ecclesiastes 12:5 when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.