Isaiah 14:4-23
“How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.”
King James Version
Babylon's sudden fall predicted in a taunt-song, fulfilled when Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BC without a battle.
Fulfillment References
Daniel 5:30 Jeremiah 50:2 Revelation 18:2
How Traditions Read This Prophecy
Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalThe taunt over the fallen 'king of Babylon' — 'How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer' — describes the proud oppressor's ruin (fulfilled in Babylon's fall, Dan. 5:30), and is widely read as picturing the pride and fall of Satan behind earthly tyranny. The Lord who breaks the oppressor's staff is the one God, who in Christ disarms and triumphs over the powers (Col. 2:15) and will finally cast down all that exalts itself.
JewishA taunt-song over the tyrant king of Babylon, mocking his hubris and descent to Sheol; 'Helel ben-Shachar' (day-star, son of dawn) is poetic imagery of the proud king's fall, not a doctrine of Satan in the plain sense.
CatholicRead of the king of Babylon and, in much patristic tradition, as alluding to the fall of Lucifer/Satan, whose pride the earthly tyrant mirrors.
ProtestantThe historical fall of Babylon's king; many also see a typological picture of Satan's pride and fall behind the passage ('Lucifer,' KJV).
AcademicA mock-dirge over a Babylonian (or generic) tyrant using ancient Near Eastern day-star mythology; the identification with Satan is a later Christian interpretive development.
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Bible Prophecy Explorer · based on J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy catalogue · an openly Apostolic (Oneness) Pentecostal study resource — all traditions presented fairly. Pastor: C. Myles Young, PhD · Bishop: Nathaniel J. Wilson, Ed.D.