A Proverb Against the King of Babylon

Isaiah 14 does not tell the story of an angel falling from heaven. It tells the reader exactly who it is about before it begins: “thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon” (Isaiah 14:4). It is a taunt song over a dead tyrant, and a few verses later the onlookers say it outright: “Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?” (Isaiah 14:16). Before that line the king is already in the grave: “Thy pomp is brought down to the grave… the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee” (Isaiah 14:11). Maggots do not eat angels.

The name the king gave himself was heylel (H1966), “shining one” — the morning star of the pagan sky, claimed by a man who said, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God” (Isaiah 14:13). Ezekiel does the same with the prince of Tyre, and stops to say plainly, “yet thou art a man, and not God” (Ezekiel 28:2).

The true morning star is not a fallen angel. It is the Son: “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16). Heylel was a stolen boast; the title belongs to its rightful bearer, and the adversary’s own names — satan, the accuser; diabolos, the slanderer; nachash, the serpent — have nothing to do with light.