Bible Strands
Isaiah 14:2
The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers this oracle to Judah following a prolonged period of foreign oppression and exile. God announces the end of their torment and the restoration of Jacob to their own land.
The words — The text uses וּ/לְקָח֣וּ/ם (u./le.ka.Chu/m) for "they will take" and וְ/הִֽתְנַחֲל֣וּ/ם (ve./hit.na.cha.Lu/m) for "they will receive as an inheritance." These verbs describe the nations actively gathering Israel and the Israelites subsequently possessing foreign peoples.
The thread — This reversal of captivity appears in Isaiah 60:14, where oppressors bow down, and Isaiah 61:5, where foreigners serve Israel. Jeremiah 30:16 similarly promises that those who devour Israel will themselves be devoured.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to recognize that divine restoration involves a concrete reversal of political and social power. It demands acceptance that God's covenant faithfulness manifests as tangible justice for the oppressed and accountability for their captors.
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
And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 61:5 Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers.
- Isaiah 60:14 The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you; all who reviled you will fall facedown at your feet and call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
- Jeremiah 30:16 Nevertheless, all who devour you will be devoured, and all your adversaries—every one of them—will go off into exile. Those who plundered you will be plundered, and all who raided you will be raided.
- Isaiah 60:9 Surely the islands will wait for Me, with the ships of Tarshish in the lead, to bring your children from afar, with their silver and gold, to the honor of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you.
- Daniel 7:25 He will speak out against the Most High and oppress the saints of the Most High, intending to change the appointed times and laws; and the saints will be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time.
- Isaiah 49:23 Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in Me will never be put to shame.”
- Daniel 7:18 But the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and possess it forever—yes, forever and ever.’
- Revelation 18:20 Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.
- Psalms 68:18 You have ascended on high; You have led captives away. You have received gifts from men, even from the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.
- Isaiah 18:7 At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.