Isaiah 14:10
in Isaiah 14They will all respond to you, saying, “You too have become weak, as we are; you have become like us!”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
All they shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
KJV
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
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This verse in Isaiah 14
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
They taunt him and derive from his calamity consolation under their own (Eze 31:16). weak--as a shade bereft of blood and life. Rephaim, "the dead," may come from a Hebrew root, meaning similarly "feeble," "powerless." The speech of the departed closes with Isa 14:11.
This site's exposition
Sheol beneath is eager to meet
on Isaiah 14:9-11
Sheol is personified, stirring the dead and raising kings from their thrones to greet the fallen tyrant with mockery. Their words, "You too have become weak, as we are," turn welcome into insult. Maggots for a bed and worms for a blanket replace the pomp and harps of his court.
This site's exposition
They will all respond to you
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown connect the word weak with Rephaim, the Hebrew name for the dead, which may come from a root meaning feeble. The dead kings take comfort in his fall. Jerome put it plainly: rank divided them on earth, and punishment joins them below.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
(Verses 10, 11.) And you have been wounded as we, you have become like us: your pride has been brought down to the grave: your body has fallen, tinea will spread beneath you, and worms will cover you. The speech of the powerful and the princes of the earth, whom he called higher than cedars and fir trees, is directed to the king of Babylon who is established in the depths. Now we do not grieve to have been cut down, since you also fall by the same axe. All your power, and the pride raised to the heavens, has been brought down to earth. Therefore, shall I support your corpse in my hand, and cover it with a multitude of swarming worms? You will feel through the death of a man the worthlessness, who preferred the power of God in you.
(Verse 10) And said: You have been wounded just like us: you have become like us. What words have this meaning: We thought that because of our weakness we could not resist the power of God, and that you were the only one who would remain in your greatness; but as it is evident, you were wounded and captured, like us; so that whom dignity separates on earth, punishment may unite in the underworld.
The Medieval Church1 voice
All, namely, all the giants of hell, shall answer, as if you had summoned them, or as though crying. Second, he sets out their reproach. And they reproach him with three things: namely, the punishment which he found, as to his death: you also are …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
All they shall speak, and say unto thee,....
It is what thou thyself didst not expect it would ever come to when thou wast in every thing too hard for us. Thou that didst rank thyself among the immortal gods, art thou come to take thy fate among us poor mortal men? Where is thy pomp now, and where thy mirth?
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
All they shall speak ... - Language of astonishment that one so proud, and who apparently never expected to die, should be brought down to that humiliating condition. It is a severe taunt at the great change which had taken place in a haughty monarch.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Have you too become weak like us We are amazed how the misfortune has fallen upon you, that you too have become weak, to be like us, to die.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
the stirring of your psalteries The psalteries and harps that used to play before you.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כֻּלָּ֣ם | kulam | all of them | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| יַֽעֲנ֔וּ | yaanu | they will answer | H6030 → | 331 times |
| וְיֹאמְר֖וּ | veyomeru | and they may say | H559 → | 5305 times |
| אֵלֶ֑יךָ | ʾeleikha | to you | H413 → | 5510 times |
| גַּם־ | gam- | also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| אַתָּ֛ה | ʾatah | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| חֻלֵּ֥יתָ | chuleita | you have been made weak | H2470 → | 76 times |
| כָמ֖וֹנוּ | khamonu | like us | H3644 → | 143 times |
| אֵלֵ֥ינוּ | ʾeleinu | to us | H413 → | 5510 times |
| נִמְשָֽׁלְתָּ׃ | nimshalta | you have become like | H4911 → |
כֻּלָּ֣םall of them
kulamH3605 →5413 times
יַֽעֲנ֔וּthey will answer
yaanuH6030 →331 times
וְיֹאמְר֖וּand they may say
veyomeruH559 →5305 times
אֵלֶ֑יךָto you
ʾeleikhaH413 →5510 times
גַּם־also
gam-H1571 →769 times
אַתָּ֛הyou
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
חֻלֵּ֥יתָyou have been made weak
chuleitaH2470 →76 times
כָמ֖וֹנוּlike us
khamonuH3644 →143 times
אֵלֵ֥ינוּto us
ʾeleinuH413 →5510 times
נִמְשָֽׁלְתָּ׃you have become like
nimshaltaH4911 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Ecclesiastes 2:16For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the…
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 1:11
There is no remembrance of those who came before, and those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow after.
- Ecclesiastes 9:5
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.
- Hebrews 9:27
Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,
- Exodus 1:8
Then a new king, who did not know Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
- Malachi 3:16
At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the LORD…
- Ecclesiastes 1:11
Through
Ezekiel 32:21Mighty chiefs will speak from the midst of Sheol about Egypt and her allies: ‘They have come down and lie with the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword.’
it leads to
- Isaiah 14:9–10
Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise…
- Ezekiel 32:27
They do not lie down with the fallen warriors of old, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were placed under their heads, whose shields rested on their bones,…
- Ezekiel 32:24–25
Elam is there with all her multitudes around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword—those who went down uncircumcised to the earth below, who once spread their terror in the…
- Isaiah 14:9–10
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Joseph Addison Alexander, Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.