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Journey of a Passage

Isaiah 14:4–6

"The golden city" or "the oppression"?

"How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!" (KJV). The Masoretic Text's madhebah is an unknown word; the KJV guessed "golden city." The Great Isaiah Scroll reads marhebah, "raging, oppression," differing by one similar-looking letter (ד/ר), and the library's Greek ("cet exacteur… ce maître impitoyable") and the Vulgate ("tributum") also point away from "gold." Most modern translations follow the scroll.

Manuscript variant: witnesses differ in wording

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The oracle as first spoken or written8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  3. 4QIsa-c (4Q57), Qumran Cave 41st century AD (reported)Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
  4. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Isaiah
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. 8th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The oracle as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives. The oldest copies of Isaiah are the Qumran scrolls: the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a, about 125 BC, nearly complete), 1QIsa-b (1Q8) and some twenty other fragmentary manuscripts.

  2. c. 125 BC (palaeography; reported)

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a), Qumran Cave 1

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    How the oppressor has ceased, the raging (marhebah) has ceased!

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 14:4–6. Reads marhebah ("raging, oppression") where the Masoretic Text has madhebah: the two words differ by one letter, r for d. Otherwise the differences are of spelling (fuller use of vowel letters) and small grammatical forms.

  3. 1st century AD (reported)

    4QIsa-c (4Q57), Qumran Cave 4

    ◐ Contains part of itDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Described from a published transcription of the manuscript. Described in the site's own words from Martin Abegg's transcription (ETCBC/CACCHT Dead Sea Scrolls dataset v2.0.5); the transcription itself is not reproduced. Photographs and DJD XXXII not yet checked.

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 14:4–6. A fragmentary copy: only parts of these verses survive, and in the transcription much of the passage is restored by the editors. The disputed word is almost entirely restored, so this copy cannot decide it.

  4. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    sumes parabolam istam contra regem Babylonis, et dices: Quomodo cessavit exactor; quievit tributum? Contrivit Dominus baculum impiorum, virgam dominantium, cædentem populos in indignatione plaga insanabili, subjicientem in furore gentes, persequentem crudeliter.

    Latin numbering: Isaiah 14:4–6. Jerome translated Isaiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  5. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The oracle as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וְנָשָׂ֜אתָ הַמָּשָׁ֥ל הַזֶּ֛ה עַל־מֶ֥לֶךְ בָּבֶ֖ל וְאָמָ֑רְתָּ אֵ֚יךְ שָׁבַ֣ת נֹגֵ֔שׂ שָׁבְתָ֖ה מַדְהֵבָֽה׃ שָׁבַ֥ר יְהוָ֖ה מַטֵּ֣ה רְשָׁעִ֑ים שֵׁ֖בֶט מֹשְׁלִֽים׃ מַכֶּ֤ה עַמִּים֙ בְּעֶבְרָ֔ה מַכַּ֖ת בִּלְתִּ֣י סָרָ֑ה רֹדֶ֤ה בָאַף֙ גּוֹיִ֔ם מֻרְדָּ֖ף בְּלִ֥י חָשָֽׂךְ׃

    How the oppressor has ceased, the madhebah (?) has ceased! (v. 4)

    Hebrew numbering: Isaiah 14:4–6.

  6. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

  7. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Isaiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Isaiah

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    Et tu composeras cette lamentation sur le roi de Babylone: Comment est mort cet exacteur? Comment est mort ce maître impitoyable? Le Seigneur a brisé le joug des impies, le joug des dominateurs. Il a frappé avec colère cette nation d’une plaie incurable, puis il l’a renversée dans sa colère et ne l’a point épargnée.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Isaiah 14:4–6. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only); a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Isaiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: manuscript variant (ד/ר confusion); the scroll offers the reading most scholars now accept. 4Q57 is broken at the word.

Mashal (v. 4) is a taunt or satirical poem; it is introduced as Israel's song when God gives rest from bondage (v. 3).

"Staff of the wicked" and "sceptre of the rulers" (v. 5): the tyrant's rod broken (compare 10:5, 24).

What the evidence shows

  • Independently documentedThe Great Isaiah Scroll reads marhebah in 14:4. Transcription; image check open.
  • Not independently verifiedThe Masoretic madhebah means "golden city." A guess from Aramaic; the word is otherwise unknown.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Isaiah 14: How Art Thou Fallen →God will have compassion on Jacob and bring foreigners to join Israel (14:1–2). Then a taunt song (mashal) over the king of Babylon: the earth rests, the cedars rejoice, Sheol rises to greet the fallen tyrant, "the worm is spread under thee" (vv. 3–11). "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer (helel), son of the morning!" He meant to ascend above the stars to the mount of assembly and be like the Most High, but is brought down to the pit, an unburied corpse (vv. 12–21); Babylon is swept away (vv. 22–23). Two short oracles follow: God will break Assyria in his land (vv. 24–27), and Philistia must not rejoice in the year Ahaz died (vv. 28–32).
    • Investigation: The Great Isaiah Scroll →Found in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947, the Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a) is the only complete book of the Hebrew Bible among the Dead Sea Scrolls, about a thousand years older than the medieval codices behind printed Hebrew Bibles. It agrees with the Masoretic Text in most of its words and differs in thousands of small ways: spelling, grammar, scribal slips, corrections, and a few real variants. This investigation explains what the scroll is, how its differences are classified, and which ones matter.