Discovery BoxIsaiah 14:9 
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
Isaiah 14:15
Context14:15 But you were brought down 5 to Sheol,
to the remote slopes of the pit. 6
Isaiah 14:19
Context14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave
like a shoot that is thrown away. 7
You lie among 8 the slain,
among those who have been slashed by the sword,
among those headed for 9 the stones of the pit, 10
as if you were a mangled corpse. 11
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.
5 tn The prefixed verb form is taken as a preterite. Note the use of perfects in v. 12 to describe the king’s downfall.
6 tn The Hebrew term בּוּר (bor, “cistern”) is sometimes used metaphorically to refer to the place of the dead or the entrance to the underworld.
7 tn Heb “like a shoot that is abhorred.” The simile seems a bit odd; apparently it refers to a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away. Some prefer to emend נֵצֶר (netser, “shoot”); some propose נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”). In this case one might paraphrase: “like a horrible-looking fetus that is delivered when a woman miscarries.”
8 tn Heb “are clothed with.”
9 tn Heb “those going down to.”
10 tn בּוֹר (bor) literally means “cistern”; cisterns were constructed from stones. On the metaphorical use of “cistern” for the underworld, see the note at v. 15.
11 tn Heb “like a trampled corpse.” Some take this line with what follows.
