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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Isaiah 14:9 - 14:9
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Isa 14:9-11. The scene changes from earth to hell.
Hades (the Amenthes of Egypt), the unseen abode of the departed; some of its tenants, once mighty monarchs, are represented by a bold personification as rising from their seats in astonishment at the descent among them of the humbled king of Babylon. This proves, in opposition to Warburton [The Divine Legation], that the belief existed among the Jews that there was a Sheol or Hades, in which the “Rephaim” or manes of the departed abode.
moved - put into agitation.
for thee - that is, “at thee”; towards thee; explained by “to meet thee at thy coming” [Maurer].
chief ones - literally, “goats”; so rams, leaders of the flock; princes (Zec 10:3). The idea of wickedness on a gigantic scale is included (Eze 34:17; Mat 25:32, Mat 25:33). Magee derives “Rephaim” (English Version, “the dead”) from a Hebrew root, “to resolve into first elements”; so “the deceased” (Isa 26:14) “ghosts” (Pro 21:16). These being magnified by the imagination of the living into gigantic stature, gave their name to giants in general (Gen 6:4; Gen 14:5; Eze 32:18, Eze 32:21). “Rephaim,” translated in the Septuagint, “giants” (compare see on Job 26:5, Job 26:6). Thence, as the giant Rephaim of Canaan were notorious even in that guilty land, enormous wickedness became connected with the term. So the Rephaim came to be the wicked spirits in Gehenna, the lower of the two portions into which Sheol is divided.