Isaiah 14:18
18 All the kings [melek] of the nations [gowy], even
all of them, lie [shakab] in glory [kabowd], every one ['iysh] in his
own house [bayith]. KJV-Interlinear
18 "All the kings of the
nations lie in glory, Each in his own tomb. NASB
The comparison is made
between the kings of human history, and the one king who is Satan.
In the contrast and
difference between the two, are that, from all of human history, every human
king or celebrity or person of status, that has ever lived, eventually went to
the grave and to a peaceful rest.
Any of those that were
unbelievers, did not go to a rest that was peaceful, but Isaiah is making a
comparison here between humanity and Satan, not between life and death.
All of humanity comes
to the end of their life, and the burdens and stresses and problems, and even
the glories of human life come to an end, and as they are placed in the grave
there is a contrast between the activity of life and the peaceful bliss of the
grave.
On numerous occasions,
kings and wealthy people, poured volumes of money into the construction and
care of their tomb.
From elaborate pyramids
to tombs of all design, many of the rich and famous and powerful, lay in rest
within their earthly burial site.
With memorials and
historical records, these people live in rest, in places that they had designed
and defined as their glory.
Needless to say, glory
belongs to the living and not to the dead. But throughout history, elaborate
tombs of been constructed to honor and memorialize, in an attempt to perpetuate
the glory of a person who is dead, and has no real glory.
The contrast here is
not between the glory of the living and the glory of the dead. The contrast,
beginning in this verse and continuing in the next verse, is between humanity
and Satan.
Humanity has acquired
time, in a quiet place to go to, at the end of their life.
Satan does not. And
that will be explained and described in the next few verses.
