Isaiah 14:3 Explained

"And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve," — Isaiah 14:3 (KJV)

Three things named as the burden of exile, and fear is listed between the sorrow and the labour.

Read it in context: The Book of Isaiah. Also gathered under verses about rest.

Isaiah 14:3 in context

What does Isaiah 14:3 mean?

The order is worth noticing: sorrow, fear, then the hard bondage that caused both. Scripture usually names circumstance first, and here it comes last — the interior weight is listed as the primary thing to be rested from. 'Hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve' is forced labour, so the rest promised is not leisure but the end of coerced work. It is a future tense throughout; nothing is claimed about the present.

What is the context of Isaiah 14:3?

Isaiah is describing the end of Babylon's power and the return of a people who had been deported. The verse opens a taunt-song against the Babylonian king; this line is the setup, describing the day the singing becomes possible.

How do I pray Isaiah 14:3?

Name your own three: the sorrow, the fear, and the thing generating both. Most people can name the third and skip the middle. Pray it in the tense it is written in — this is a promise about a day, and praying it as if the day had arrived turns a hope into a denial.

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