Discovery BoxIsaiah 9:10 
Context9:10 “The bricks have fallen,
but we will rebuild with chiseled stone;
the sycamore fig trees have been cut down,
but we will replace them with cedars.” 1
Isaiah 13:18
Context13:18 Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; 2
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, 3
they will not 4 look with pity on children.
Isaiah 14:12
Context14:12 Look how you have fallen from the sky,
O shining one, son of the dawn! 5
You have been cut down to the ground,
O conqueror 6 of the nations! 7
Isaiah 33:12
Context33:12 The nations will be burned to ashes; 8
like thorn bushes that have been cut down, they will be set on fire.
Isaiah 48:19
Context48:19 Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, 9
and your children 10 like its granules.
Their name would not have been cut off
and eliminated from my presence. 11
1 sn Though judgment (see v. 8) had taken away the prosperity they did have (symbolized by the bricks and sycamore fig trees), they arrogantly expected the future to bring even greater prosperity (symbolized by the chiseled stone and cedars).
2 tn Heb “and bows cut to bits young men.” “Bows” stands by metonymy for arrows.
3 tn Heb “the fruit of the womb.”
4 tn Heb “their eye does not.” Here “eye” is a metonymy for the whole person.
5 tn The Hebrew text has הֵילֵל בֶּן־שָׁחַר (helel ben-shakhar, “Helel son of Shachar”), which is probably a name for the morning star (Venus) or the crescent moon. See HALOT 245 s.v. הֵילֵל.
sn What is the background for the imagery in vv. 12-15? This whole section (vv. 4b-21) is directed to the king of Babylon, who is clearly depicted as a human ruler. Other kings of the earth address him in vv. 9ff., he is called “the man” in v. 16, and, according to vv. 19-20, he possesses a physical body. Nevertheless the language of vv. 12-15 has led some to see a dual referent in the taunt song. These verses, which appear to be spoken by other pagan kings to a pagan king (cf. vv. 9-11), contain several titles and motifs that resemble those of Canaanite mythology, including references to Helel son of Shachar, the stars of El, the mountain of assembly, the recesses of Zaphon, and the divine title Most High. Apparently these verses allude to a mythological story about a minor god (Helel son of Shachar) who tried to take over Zaphon, the mountain of the gods. His attempted coup failed and he was hurled down to the underworld. The king of Babylon is taunted for having similar unrealized delusions of grandeur. Some Christians have seen an allusion to the fall of Satan here, but this seems contextually unwarranted (see J. Martin, “Isaiah,” BKCOT, 1061).
6 tn Some understand the verb to from חָלַשׁ (khalash, “to weaken”), but HALOT 324 s.v. II חלשׁ proposes a homonym here, meaning “to defeat.”
7 sn In this line the taunting kings hint at the literal identity of the king, after likening him to the god Helel and a tree. The verb גָדַע (gada’, “cut down”) is used of chopping down trees in 9:10 and 10:33.
8 tn Heb “will be a burning to lime.” See Amos 2:1.
9 tn Heb “like sand”; NCV “as many as the grains of sand.”
10 tn Heb “and the issue from your inner parts.”
11 tn Heb “and his name would not be cut off and would not be destroyed from before me.”
