Discovery BoxIsaiah 14:9-10 
Context14:9 Sheol 1 below is stirred up about you,
ready to meet you when you arrive.
It rouses 2 the spirits of the dead for you,
all the former leaders of the earth; 3
it makes all the former kings of the nations
rise from their thrones. 4
14:10 All of them respond to you, saying:
‘You too have become weak like us!
You have become just like us!
1 sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead.
2 tn Heb “arousing.” The form is probably a Polel infinitive absolute, rather than a third masculine singular perfect, for Sheol is grammatically feminine (note “stirred up”). See GKC 466 §145.t.
3 tn Heb “all the rams of the earth.” The animal epithet is used metaphorically here for leaders. See HALOT 903 s.v. *עַתּוּד.
4 tn Heb “lifting from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” הֵקִים (heqim, a Hiphil perfect third masculine singular) should be emended to an infinitive absolute (הָקֵים, haqem). See the note on “rouses” earlier in the verse.
