Isaiah 14:9-18 – Prophecy of Sheol :: By Mark A. Becker

Introduction

Isaiah 14:9-18, in my opinion, can be considered a blended multidimensional Prophecy of Sheol. We briefly covered the application of the king of Babylon’s role within this prophecy in Isaiah 13 and 14: Babylon Near and Far – Part 2, and now we would like to consider two other applications to this passage within this amazing prophecy.

As most know, Lucifer – or Satan – is most certainly the subject matter of Isaiah 14:12-14, which sets the stage for our study.

To begin with, we will analyze the prospect that Antichrist may also be in view in this blended multifaceted prophecy within those surrounding verses of Isaiah 14:12-14.

Antichrist in Sheol in Isaiah 14:9-11, 15-18?

We know from the book of Revelation that Antichrist and the False Prophet will be the first two individuals that will be thrown into the Lake of Fire at Messiah’s Second Coming (Revelation 19:20). But is there a possibility that Antichrist’s spirit will descend into Sheol before that fateful event, and, if so, when would this be?

As we noted in Revelation 13 – The Antichrist, Antichrist appears to be killed and resurrected again (Revelation 13:14, 11:7). Many believe this will be a false resurrection – a deception of Satan and the Antichrist – but the more I have considered this event, the more I am convinced that Antichrist will indeed die. Of course, it will be God’s will and power that will allow Antichrist’s spirit to return to his recently deceased body, “which had the wound by a sword, and did live” (Revelation 13:14), but the outcome of this resurrection would surely help to deceive and convince the world to follow the Antichrist and worship him and Satan, the real power behind his throne.

With this foundation laid, let us look at this portion of Scripture in Isaiah and see if a possible connection with the Antichrist might exist.

“Hell” is Sheol in Hebrew. We will have more to say on this place as we move along. Suffice it to say, the “torments/hades/hell” section of Sheol is where the souls of the unsaved dead reside (Luke 16:19-31).

Many “kings of the nations” who have died since creation, and others who will have been killed during The Gap between the rapture and the beginning of the Tribulation when wars break out all over the world, as well as the thrones Antichrist will usurp when he plucks up three of the horns (Antichrist’s last adversaries) during the first half of the Tribulation, will be “raised up from their thrones” in “Hell”/Sheol “to meet thee [Antichrist] at thy coming.”

“All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?” – Isaiah 14:10

These rulers that Antichrist will have overthrown will be very interested in his short stay in Sheol, to say the least!

“Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.” – Isaiah 14:11

Antichrist will certainly be full of “pomp,” and “the noise of [his] viols” – or music celebrating and coronating him as the man of peace who united a chaotic world in the first half of the Tribulation.

When considering that “the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee,” when Christ spoke of hell, he had this to say concerning worms:

“Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” – Mark 9:44

The unsaved whose “worm” that “dieth not” is associated with “the fire” that is “not quenched,” when their spirits descend to Sheol after death and are both spiritually symbolic of the torments they will experience in hell or hades and eventually in the Lake of Fire following the Great White Throne Judgment.

As noted above, Isaiah 14:12-14 is our passage on Lucifer or Satan, and we should certainly not apply these verses to anyone other than Satan himself.

“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” – Isaiah 14:15

Unfortunately, for the world, Antichrist will not stay too long as he has got some unfinished business to do on Earth during the Great Tribulation before he will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Here is what we observed in Revelation 11: In the Midst of the Tribulation concerning Antichrist’s descent “to hell, to the sides of the pit” when he is killed, then afterwards he “ascendeth out of the bottomless pit” and kills the Two Witnesses as recorded in Revelation 11:7:

“And when they [the Two Witnesses] shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” – Revelation 11:7

This, for me, is confirmation that the Antichrist will be killed and then “resurrected” at some point during the first half of the Tribulation – more than likely, toward the middle of the Tribulation – and God will allow his spirit to come back into his body from “the bottomless pit” in Sheol to deceive the whole world during the Great Tribulation.

Additionally, we can presume quite confidently that Antichrist will be energized by – and probably possessed by – Satan himself. This would primarily be the reason that Antichrist will be allowed to kill the Two Witnesses.

For why the Antichrist is the only one who is able to kill the Two Witnesses, again, I would point the reader to Can We Know the Identity of the Two Witnesses? When one understands where the evidence points to who these Two Witnesses are, they will comprehend why it is that a Satanically energized Antichrist will be allowed by God to defeat these two holy entities, but only for three and half days!

“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; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?” – Isaiah 14:16-17

When applied to the Antichrist, this could pertain to the damage that Antichrist will have already inflicted on the world’s stage before he is killed, though in the beginning, he props himself up as a man of peace.

Indeed, Antichrist will have already made a name for himself as a conqueror and a destroyer of those opposed to him and his mission in the first half of the Tribulation.

“All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.” – Isaiah 14:18

The literal text analysis of this verse reads, “… all of them sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.” This implies that the bodies of all the kings of the nations, when they had died, their bodies were buried in their “own house” or in their own land.

Therefore, if this prophecy is applied to the Antichrist, this might suggest that Antichrist will also lie in state, or “lie in glory… in his own house,” and not buried as he awaits his God-ordained resurrection to finish the objectives that Satan has devised for him.

What about the possibility that these same prophetic passages could apply – or is also applicable and in view in this blended multifaceted prophecy – to Satan?

Satan’s Prophecy in Isaiah 14:12-14

“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” – Isaiah 14:12-14

Lucifer’s pride and rebellion against his Creator is second to none!

What is fascinating about Isaiah’s prophecy of Satan in Isaiah 14:12-14 is that it is sandwiched between the following passages, which we looked at above for Antichrist:

“Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.” – Isaiah 14:9-11

“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit 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; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?” – Isaiah 14:15-17

In these passages (Isaiah 14:9-11, 15-17) – that bookend Isaiah’s prophecy of Satan in Isaiah 14:12-14 – we have in view a meeting of an individual with the inhabitants of Sheol.

What are we to make of this? Could this be Satan himself who visits Sheol?

Well, if it were not for the book of Revelation, we would surely regard such a supposition as preposterous. However, we do have the book of Revelation, and such a notion, now, is not only conceivable, but very plausible!

Satan in Prison in the Book of Revelation

The reason the Bible student can make a conceivable connection of Satan being in Sheol in Isaiah 14:9-18 is because of what is revealed to us in the book of Revelation. Let us consider what we read there.

“And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season…

“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” – Revelation 20-1-3, 7-10

The Greek word for “bottomless pit” is 12 ἄβυσσος “abussos” and means bottomless, the pit, unbounded, the abyss. This is the same word that is used for where the Antichrist ascends from in Revelation 11:7, when God allows him to be resurrected after being killed, and is the same word applied for both the Antichrist’s Beast empire that will be resurrected from history past – Babel/Babylon, where the Antichrist will rule from during the Great Tribulation – and for his own resurrection, in the unified blended passage of the man and the empire both being resurrected in Revelation 17:8.

Satan in Sheol in Isaiah 14:9-18?

Now, we will be looking at this same portion of Scripture that we expounded upon for Antichrist in Isaiah 14:9-18, above, from the viewpoint of an allusion to what will happen to Satan when he is thrown into prison after the Tribulation and the Second Coming of Messiah Yeshua (Revelation 20:1-3).

The Hebrew word translated “hell” is 7585 שְׁאוֹל “sheol” and means underworld (place to which people descend after death), grave, hell, pit. Or shol {sheh-ole’}; from sha’al; Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates — grave, hell, pit.

This is believed to be the same place that houses the abyss.

“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” – Jude 1:6

While we do not know for certain if Satan will be allowed to be in the presence of anyone else in Sheol for the duration of the Messianic Millennial Kingdom, it seems more than realistic to me that he will be allowed to see – if only for a short time on his way down further into the abyss – all of those who he helped to deceive into being there in the first place. Why would not God allow those whom Satan has deceived throughout history to see the adversary as he truly is at this unique point in time?!?

Satan had surely “raised up… their thrones” of “all the kings of the nations” during his approximately 6,000-year reign on earth!

“All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?” – Isaiah 14:10

What a shock it must be to these people who had been willingly deceived by the Master Deceiver to see Satan as he really is in his fallen state!

What follows is a verse that usually is not applied to Satan, but in this sense, it surely seems apropos!

“Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.” – Isaiah 14:11

This verse with “the noise of thy viols” (when applied to Satan), along with Ezekiel 28:13, is where many have gotten the idea that Lucifer was the lead musician in heaven before his fall. Whether Satan was the lead musician in heaven is true or not, it does appear that musical ability was attributed to Lucifer, though I would suggest that music ability was and is a hallmark of all of God’s unique creations, from the angels (holy and fallen) to human beings, animals, and even creation itself.

While Satan does not have a dead body to have “the worm [maggot]… spread under [him] and the worms [that would] cover [him],” the imagery can be seen as applicable to how far Satan has really fallen and his spiritual condition!

Moreover, as we noted above, Jesus said of the proverbial worm in hell/hades for unbelievers: “Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” – Mark 9:44

As we observed: The unsaved whose “worm” that “dieth not” is associated with “the fire” that is “not quenched,” when their spirits descend to Sheol after death and are both spiritually symbolic of the torments they will experience in hell/hades while they await the Great White Throne Judgment.

Physically, because Earth is round and the abode of Sheol is apparently in the center of Earth, the worms that have devoured the bodies of the unsaved dead he will encounter will envelope the unsaved souls and Satan and his fallen angels in the Abyss in Sheol.

Satan, in this regard, will obviously have the same experience while he is in prison – even having the worms of the unsaved dead “spread under” him and “cover” him while he resides in the bottomless pit of the abyss – and will ultimately see his own worm live on through eternity in the Lake of Fire!

“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” – Isaiah 14:15

Here is a verse that aligns so perfectly with Revelation 20:1-3, as Satan will be thrown into the abyss for 1,000 years.

This verse also seems to confirm our theory. How? We see that Satan will first be “brought down to Sheol/hell/hades” where the unsaved souls of men and women are housed, and then “to the sides [literally, the lowest depths] of the pit” within the bottomless abyss.

The Hebrew for “man” is 376 אִישׁ “ish” and has a wide variety of definitions including great, mighty man, he, high degree, him that is, husband, mankind. Contracted for ‘enowsh (or perhaps rather from an unused root meaning to be extant); a man as an individual or a male person; often used as an adjunct to a more definite term (and in such cases frequently not expressed in translation) — also, another, any (man), a certain, + champion, consent, each, every (one), fellow, (foot-, husband-)man, (good-, great, mighty) man, he, high (degree), him (that is), husband, man(-kind), + none, one, people, person, + steward, what (man) soever, whoso(-ever), worthy.

Here again, we have those who will look upon Satan – if only for a brief time – dismayed, and seemingly disgusted with what they see, to say the least.

Satan indeed “made the earth to tremble [and] did shake kingdoms” during his brutal 6,000-year or so reign. He “made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof” at different times in history and especially while he possessed his man of sin, Antichrist, during the Great Tribulation. And he never “opened… the house of his prisoners,” always seeking to keep mankind in bondage to sin and his wicked devices.

“All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.” – Isaiah 14:18

As noted above: The literal text analysis read, “… all of them sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.” This implies that the bodies of all the kings of the nations, when they had died, their bodies were buried in their “own house” or in their own land.

With Satan as our application in these passages, this verse is stressing that those kings who Satan ruled over – as the power behind their thrones – when they died, they were buried in their own “house” or land.

Satan, on the other hand, has no body to bury as he was thrown into Sheol, on his way to the abyss or the pit, alive and whole, just as he will be thrown into the Lake of Fire at the end of the age!

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” – Revelation 20:10

Conclusion

I pray the reader has enjoyed our foray into this amazingly blended multifaceted prophecy in Isaiah 14 that seems to encapsulate three individuals together: The earthly king of Babylon, Antichrist, and Satan himself.

For the Bible student, this is how many prophecies in Scripture are given. There are often diverse near and far applications to so many of God’s prophecies found in the Word of God, especially in the Tanakh, from the prophets to the Psalms and everything in between, and even including, at times, within the Brit Chadashah.

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May we all keep Answering the Call of The Great Commission, and giving an answer to every man and woman who so desperately needs Jesus and asks us, “Why Am I Here and What Is It All About?”

Love, grace, mercy, and shalom in Messiah Yeshua, and Maranatha!

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Isaiah 14:9-18 – Prophecy of Sheol :: By Mark A. Becker

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