Bible Strands
Isaiah 14:4
you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses the people of Israel, instructing them to raise a taunt song against the defeated king of Babylon after the Lord grants them rest from forced labor.
The words — נָשָׂאתָ (na.Sa.ta) means "you will lift up," and מָשָׁל (ma.Shal) translates to "saying" or "proverb," forming the direct command to voice a contempt song. אֵיךְ ('eikh) literally means "how!" and introduces the exclamation marking the oppressor's sudden cessation.
The thread — This instruction follows the Lord breaking the staff of the wicked ruler (Isaiah 14:5) and parallels the prophetic overthrow of Babylon (Isaiah 13:19) and the promised humiliation of oppressors (Isaiah 49:26).
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that political power and persecution are temporary, and calls the reader to acknowledge divine justice when oppression ends.
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
That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
Cross-references
- Isaiah 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
- 2 Chronicles 36:18 who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king and his officials.
- Isaiah 13:19 And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Isaiah 14:6 It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows; it subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution.
- Isaiah 14:17 who turned the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who refused to let the captives return to their homes?”
- Isaiah 45:2 “I will go before you and level the mountains; I will break down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
- Isaiah 47:5 “Sit in silence and go into darkness, O Daughter of the Chaldeans. For you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms.
- Isaiah 51:23 I will place it in the hands of your tormentors, who told you: ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you,’ so that you made your back like the ground, like a street to be traversed.”
- Jeremiah 24:9 I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
- Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.