Isaiah Chapter 14 verse 9 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 9. - Hell from beneath. The Hebrew Sheol corresponded nearly to the Greek Hades, and the Latin Inferi. It was a dismal region in the center of the earth, whither departed souls descended, and where they remained thenceforth. There were various depths in it, each apparently more dismal than the preceding; but there is no evidence that it was considered to contain any place of happiness, until after the return from the Captivity. The prophet here represents Sheol as disturbed by the advent of the Babylonian monarch, and as rousing itself to receive him. The great ones of the earth, and the kings, who are kings even in Hades, and sit upon thrones, are especially moved by the occasion, and prepare to meet and greet their brother. Personal identity and continued consciousness of it after death are assumed; and the former earthly rank of the inmates seems to be recognized and maintained. It stirreth up the dead. Hell in the aggregate - the place personified - proceeds to arouse the individual inmates, who are called re-phaim - the word commonly translated "giants" (Deuteronomy 2:11, 20; Deuteronomy 13:12; Joshua 12:4; Joshua 13:12, etc.), but meaning properly "feeble ones." The shades or ghosts of the departed were regarded as weak and nerveless, in comparison with living men (compare the Homeric εἴδωλα καμόντων). All the chief ones; literally, the he-goats (comp. Jeremiah 1:8; Jeremiah 51:40; Zechariah 10:3). Raised up from their thrones; i.e. "caused to rise up from their thrones," and stand in eager expectation of what was about to happen.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(9) Hell from beneath is moved for thee . . .--"Hell," or Sheol, is, as elsewhere, the shadow-world, the region of the dead. Into that world the king of Babylon descends. The "dead" and the Rephaim are there, the giant-spectres, now faint and feeble (Deuteronomy 2:11; Deuteronomy 3:11), of departed forms of greatness. The verb ("it stirreth up"), which is masculine, while the noun is feminine, seems to personify Sheol, as Hades is personified in Revelation 20:14. The "chief ones" are, literally, the he-goats, or "bell-wethers" of the flock (Isaiah 34:6; Zechariah 10:3), of which Hades is the shepherd (Psalm 49:14). Even in Sheol the kings of the earth retain their former majesty, and sit on thrones apart from the vulgar dead. In Ezekiel 32:17-32 we have a reproduction of the same imagery, and the kings appear, each with his "weapons of war." The whole passage finds a striking parallel in the Assyrian legend of the Descent of Ishtar (Records of the Past, i. p. 144), where Hades is described. . . .