Isaiah 14:19

But thou art cast out of thy grave,.... Or rather "from" it (d); that is, he was not suffered to be put into it, or to have a burial, as the following words show, at least not to be laid in the grave

They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; -The passers by contemplate with astonishment the

Cast out of thy grave; or, cast from thy grave or burying place; which very probably happened to Belshazzar, who was slain in the night, , when his people had neither opportunity nor heart to bestow an honourable interment upon him, and the conquerors would not suffer them to do it. Like an abominable branch; like a useless and rotten twig of a tree, which he that pruneth the trees cutteth off, and casteth away with abhorrency, and suffers to lie rotting more and more upon the ground; or, like a degenerate plant of a noble vine, which is abominable. As the raiment of those that are slain; which, being cut and mangled, and besmeared with mire, and defiled with blood, was cast away with contempt, and abominated as an unclean thing, as it was in divers respects, in that age and state of the church. That go down to the stones of the pit; which persons being slain, they, together with their garments, are cast into some pit. He saith, to the stones of the pit, either because such bodies are commonly thrown into the next pits, and pits were frequently made by digging stones out of their quarries; or because there usually are a great number of stones in the bottoms of pits, either naturally, or being cast in thither upon, divers occasions; and when dead bodies are cast in thither, men use to throw a heap of stones upon them. As a carcass trodden under feet; neglected, like such a carcass. Or this might literally happen to Belshazzar’ s dead body, through military fury and contempt, or from other causes.

Isaiah 14:19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, [and as] the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.Ver. 19. But thou art cast out of thy grave,] i.e., Cast out and kept from thy grave. This befell Belshazzar upon the surprisal of the city. And the like also befell Alexander the Great dying at the same city; and our William the Conqueror, who having utterly sacked the city of Mants in France, and in the destruction thereof got his own, died shortly after at Rouen, where his corpse lay three days unburied - his interment being hindered by one that claimed the ground to be his. Like an abominable branch.] The matter is here set forth by three notable similitudes, such as this prophet is full of. Insepulta sepultura turpissime abiectus es. - Scult. Daniel’ s History, 42, 50.

(19) Like an abominable branch.—The noun is the same as in Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 60:21. The idea seems to be that of a scion or shoot which is mildewed and blasted, and which men fling away as loathsome. As the raiment of those that are slain . . .—The image reminds us of the “garments rolled in blood “of Isaiah 9:5, gathered after the battle, and “cast forth” to be burnt. In such raiment, not in stately robes nor kingly grave-clothes, would the great ruler be found. To lie thus unburied, “a prey to dogs and vultures” (Homer, Iliad, i. 4), was, as with the Homeric heroes, the shame of all shames. That go down to the stones of the pit.—By some critics these words are joined with the following verse: Those that go down . . . with them thou shalt not be joined in burial, i.e., shalt have no proper sepulchre. As the passage stands, “the stones of the pit” represent the burial-place into which the carcases of the slain were indiscriminately thrown.

Verse 19. Like an abominable branch - "Like the tree abominated"] That is, as an object of abomination and detestation; such as the tree is on which a malefactor has been hanged. "It is written," saith St. Paul, Galatians 3:13, "Cursed is every man that hangeth on a tree," from Deuteronomy 21:23. The Jews therefore held also as accursed and polluted the tree itself on which a malefactor had been executed, or on which he had been hanged after having been put to death by stoning. "Non suspendunt super arbore, quae radicibus solo adhaereat; sed super ligno eradicato, ut ne sit excisio molesta: nam lignum, super quo fuit aliquis suspensus, cum suspendioso sepelitur; ne maneat illi malum nomen, et dicant homines, Istud est lignum, in quo suspensus est ille, ὁδεινα. Sic lapis, quo aliquis fuit lapidatus; et gladius, quo fuit occisus is qui est occisus; et sudarium sive mantile, quo fuit aliquis strangulates; omnia haec cum iis, qui perierunt, sepeliuntur." Maimonides, apud Casaub. in Baron. Exercitat. xvi. An. 34, Num. 134. "Cum itaque homo suspensu maximae esset abominationi - Judaei quoque prae caeteris abominabantur lignum quo fuerat suspensus, ita ut illud quoque terra tegerent, tanquam rem abominabilem. Unde interpres Chaldaeus haec verba transtulit כחט טמור kechat temir, sicut virgultum absconditum, sive sepultum." Kalinski, Vaticinta Observationibus Illustrata, p. 342. "The Jews never hang any malefactor upon a tree that is growing in the earth, but upon a post fixed in the ground, that it might never be said, 'That is the tree on which such a one was hanged;' for custom required that the tree should be buried with the malefactor. In like manner the stone by which a criminal was stoned to death, or the sword by which he was beheaded, or the napkin or handkerchief by which he was strangled, should be buried with him in the same grave." "For as the hanged man was considered the greatest abomination, so the very post or wood on which he was hanged was deemed a most abominable thing, and therefore buried under the earth." Agreeably to which Theodoret, Hist. Ecclesiast. i. 17, 18, in his account of the finding of the cross by Helena, says, "That the three crosses were buried in the earth near the place of our Lord's sepulchre." And this circumstance seems to confirm the relation of the discovery of the cross of Christ. The crosses were found where the custom required they should be buried. The raiment of those that are slain - "Clothed with the slain"] Thirty-five MSS., (ten ancient,) and three editions, have the word fully written, לבוש lebush. It is not a noun, but the participle passive; thrown out among the common slain and covered with the dead bodies. So Isaiah 14:11, the earth-worm is said to be his bed-covering. This reading is confirmed by two ancient MSS. in my own collection.

19. cast out of thy grave] Better as in R.V., cast forth away from thy sepulchre, i.e. flung out unburied. The idea that the body had been disinterred is inconsistent with Isaiah 14:20. like an abominable branch] A worthless scion of the family. and as the raiment of those that are slain] Render as R.V. clothed with (i.e. “surrounded by”) the slain, on the field of battle. that go down to the stones of the pit] A difficult expression. In its present position it is most naturally understood of the hasty and ignominious burial of a dead enemy by casting stones on the body (cf. 2 Samuel 18:17). The rhythm, however, demands a short line at this point, and this phrase is much too long. Hence some propose to transfer the words to the beginning of Isa 14:20, where they would open a new strophe, thus:— “Those that are buried in graves of stone, with them shalt thou not be united in sepulture.” On this view they must be a synonym for honourable sepulture, and the “stones of the pit” would denote stone-built tombs. This seems a less natural sense. A reference to the pit of Sheol (Isaiah 14:15) is hardly to be expected in this place.

But thou art cast out of thy grave - Thou art not buried like other kings in a magnificent sepulchre, but art cast out like the common dead. This was a mark of the highest infamy (see Isaiah 34:3; Ezekiel 29:5; Jeremiah 22:19).

19. Cast out of thy grave — A neglected carcass, far from thy grandly-built sepulchre. How horrible the contrast in this case! Abominable branch — A shoot or branch cut off as an abhorred thing; cast away for burning.