Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008).^[1]

Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (3rd century BCE or later):^[2]

• 1QIsa^a: complete
• 4QIsa^c (4Q57): extant verses 1-5, 13
• 4QIsa^l (4Q65): extant verses 1‑12, 21‑24
• 4QIsa^o (4Q68): extant verses 28‑32

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^Q; 6th century).^[3]

Verse 1

For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.^[5]

• "For": from the Hebrew word כִּי, ki, at the start of the verse as 'asseverative' ("certainly"), emphasizing the Lord's desire to restore his people as one of the reasons for Babylon's demise (Isaiah 13:22b).^[6]

Verse 2

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.^[7]

Verse 3

And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,^[8]

Hebrew Text

The following table shows the Hebrew text^[10][11] of Isaiah 14:4-21^[12] with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the JPS 1917 translation (now in the public domain).

Trivia

The song in verses 4b–21 could be secondarily applied to Sargon II, who died in 705 BCE and his body was never recovered from the battlefield. Here, Sargon ("King of Assyria" in Isaiah 20:1) is called the "King of Babylon" because from 710–707 BCE he ruled in Babylon and even reckoned his regnal year on this basis (as seen in Cyprus Stela, II. 21–22).^[13]

Verse 12

"How you are fallen from heaven,

O Lucifer, son of the morning!

How you are cut down to the ground,

You who weakened the nations!"^[14]

• "Fallen from heaven": see Luke 10:15, 18 for the words of Jesus regarding the War in Heaven.
• "Lucifer" or "Daystar" (Hebrew: הילל, romanized: hēlēl, from Hebrew: הלל, romanized: hālal, "to shine"). The Septuagint renders it Ἑωσφόρος Heōsphoros, and Jerome in the Vulgate, "Lucifer, the morning star"; in the Chaldee, "How art thou fallen from high, who wert splendid among the sons of men." The New Oxford Annotated Bible suggests the correlation with "a Canaanite myth of the gods Helel and Shahar (Morning Star and Dawn), who fall from heaven as a result of rebellion."^[15]

Verse 19

But you are cast out of your grave

Like an abominable branch,

Like the garment of those who are slain,

Thrust through with a sword,

Who go down to the stones of the pit,

Like a corpse trodden underfoot.^[16]

• "Abominable branch": "despised branch"^[17] or "like a shoot that is abhorred", where "branch" or "shoot" is from Hebrew word נֵצֶר, netser (cf. Isaiah 11:1), here may refer to 'a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away'.^[18]
• "Thrust": "pierced"^[19]

Verse 29

Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,

Because the rod that struck you is broken;

For out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper,

And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.^[20]

• "Philistia": from Hebrew: פְלֶ֙שֶׁת֙, p̄ə-le-šeṯ,^[21] KJV renders it as "Palestina", not in the wider meaning as today, but specifically as 'the country of the Philistines'.^[22]