For those of you who have followed this blog for some time and have read the posts about the War to Come, we now enter into territory in our discussion of the Repha’iym which may have a current application, as the prophecy of Yesha’yahu is made manifest in our world following the events of 9/11. Let us consider this with particularity.
Yesha’yahu (Isaiah) 14:4-20
That you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babel, and say, How has the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! 5 YAHUAH has broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. 6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hinders. 7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. 8 Yea, the fir trees rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you are laid down, no feller is come up against us. 9 She’ol from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming: it stirs up the Repha’iym for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 10 All they shall speak and say unto you, Are you also become weak as we? are you become like unto us? 11 Your pomp is brought down to She’ol, and the noise of your viols: the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you. 12 How are you fallen from heaven, O Heylel, son of the howling morning! how are you cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of EL: I will sit also upon the Mount of the assembly, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like EL ELYON. 15 Yet you shall be brought down to She’ol, to the sides of the pit. 16 They that see you shall narrowly look upon you, and consider you, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; 17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? 18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, everyone in his own house. 19 But you are cast out of your 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. 20 You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, and slain your people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
This is the passage (14:12) that has in other English translations used the word Lucifer; a name that simply does not exist in the underlying Hebrew. When you lose the word Lucifer, the passage has a much less supernatural connotation, because the passage does not discuss Lucifer, but rather, the king of Babel, whoever that might be.
As we have discussed previously, Babel (BBL) implies the house of the shepherd (beit lamed) within a house (beit), or the house of Ba’al over the house of the shepherd. Given the claim of America to the prophecy set forth in Yesha’yahu 9:11 (the bricks have fallen . . .), and the discussion of its leader being the Assyrian (the heritage of Nebuchadnezzar), as the judgment of the house of Yisra’el continues, the question is if the house of Babel can be found over the house of Yisra’el in America.
Stay tuned.