Isaiah 14 · a question people ask
"Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming" (14:9). Is 14:9-11 a picture of what happens after death?
The chapter calls these words "this parable" (14:4) (tap parable), taken up against the king of Babylon. In it, Sheol "stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations" (14:9), and they say, "Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?" (14:10). "Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments" (14:11). The WEB keeps the Hebrew word Sheol (tap Sheol), and departed spirits is refa'im (tap departed spirits). The chapter uses these words to say that the king who "made the earth to tremble" (14:16) is brought as low as the kings before him (14:10, 14:15). It doesn't set out what the dead know or do, and these notes build no teaching about life after death on it. Other passages speak of Sheol and of the dead in their own words, among them Psalm 88 and Ecclesiastes 9, and the notes on those chapters look at them.
The verses
“that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!””
“Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?” Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.”
“Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit. Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms,”
“Do you show wonders to the dead? Do the departed spirits rise up and praise you? Selah.”