The Taunt Brings Babylon's King down to Sheol

The whole earth breaks into rest when the oppressor's staff snaps

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. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

The taunt is against an imperial human king. Trees rest because the logger is down. Sheol beneath is moved to meet him, raising the dead rulers who say, Art thou also become weak as we? 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.

The morning-star boast is this king's, and his corpse is denied a tomb

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. 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? The taunt addresses an imperial human ruler. The morning-star image is his collapsed boast, not by itself a biography of Satan. They shall not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers, that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. That dynastic curse is the poem's erasure of a violent house; it does not authorize violence against a ruler's descendants. I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction.