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Isaiah 14:18

in Isaiah 14

All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, every one in his own house.

KJV

All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

This verse in Isaiah 14

Commentary

7 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Isaiah · Written before 420.

(Verse 18, 19.) All the kings of the nations, all slept in glory, each man in his own house. But you have been cast out of your tomb like a useless branch, defiled and wrapped with those who were slain by the sword, and have gone down to the foundations of the abyss; you will not have the company of a decaying corpse, nor be buried with them. The Hebrews tell the following story: Evilmerodach, who during his father Nebuchadnezzar's lifetime spent seven years among the beasts, had reigned before he was restored to the kingdom.

This site's exposition

Those who see you will stare

on Isaiah 14:16-19

Other kings lie in state, but this king is cast out of his grave like a rejected branch, denied the burial his rank would guarantee. Ancient Near Eastern culture held a king's burial as dynastic honor, and this king alone is refused what the other kings receive.

This site's exposition

All the kings of the nations lie in state

The Hebrew behind tomb is house, and Henry calls the grave the house appointed for all living. The kings of the nations lay in costly tombs, as Barnes notes. Verse 19 denies the king of Babylon that honour.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Thus, as if they would defy the ignominy of death, they lay in a poor faint sort of glory, every one in his own house, that is, his own burying-place (for the grave is the house appointed for all living), a sleeping house, where the busy and troublesome will lie quiet and the troubled and weary lie at rest. But this king of Babylon is cast out and has no grave (

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All the kings of the nations,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

All the kings of the nations - That is, this is the common way in which the kings are buried. Lie in glory - They lie in a magnificent mausoleum; they are surrounded with splendor even in their tombs. It is well known that vast sums of money were expended to rear magnificent mausoleums as the burial place of kings. With this design, probably, the pyramids of Egypt were reared; and the temple of Bel in Babylon, we are told, was employed for this purpose. Josephus says that vast quantities of money were buried in the sepulchre of David.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

All--that is, This is the usual practice. in glory--in a grand mausoleum. house--that is, "sepulchre," as in Ec 12:5; "grave" (Isa 14:19). To be excluded from the family sepulcher was a mark of infamy (Isa 34:3;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

The words behind it

8 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • מַלְכֵ֥י[the] kings of

    malkheiH4428 →2525 times

  • גוֹיִ֖ם[the] nations

    goyimH1471 →561 times

  • כֻּלָּ֑םall of them

    kulamH3605 →5413 times

  • שָׁכְב֥וּthey have lain down

    shakhevuH7901 →212 times

  • בְכָב֖וֹדin splendor

    vekhavodH3519 →200 times

  • אִ֥ישׁeach one

    ʾishH376 →1663 times

  • בְּבֵיתֽוֹ׃in own house his

    beveitoH1004 →2046 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    2 Chronicles 24:16

    And Jehoiada was buried with the kings in the City of David, because he had done what was good in Israel for God and His temple.

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 6:10

      For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so.

    • 2 Chronicles 31:20

      So this is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and upright and true before the LORD his God.

  • Through

    Isaiah 22:16

    What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?

    it leads to

    • Matthew 27:60

      and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut into the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.

    • 2 Samuel 18:18

      During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the…

    • 2 Chronicles 16:14

      And he was buried in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bier that was full of spices and various blended perfumes;…

    • Job 3:14

      with kings and counselors of the earth, who built for themselves cities now in ruins,

  • Through

    Job 30:23

    Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

    it leads to

    • Ecclesiastes 12:5–7

      when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners…

    • 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.

Where this verse is studied

About Isaiah

The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Prophet Isaiah, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; 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 (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.