Isaiah 14:31
Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
Isaiah 14:31 belongs to the first part of Isaiah, chapters 1 to 39, which contains the prophecies and historical accounts written during Isaiah's active public work as God's messenger to the rulers and the people, issued as distinct single prophecies at different times and on different occasions and afterward gathered into one collection. It does not belong to the second part, chapters 40 to 66, written in his later years apart from active work in the theocracy and occupied wholly with the future, consoling with deliverance from the Babylonian captivity by the named monarch and with deliverance from sin and error through the Messiah. The book is not to be divided chronologically by the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, since several chapters are transposed and inserted out of chronological order.
The verse belongs to the prophecies of Babylon in Isaiah 13 and 14, within the predictions in Isaiah 13 to 16 concerning Babylon, Palestina, and Moab. The chapter foretells the destruction of Babylon, and the verse itself is the burden against Philistia, presenting God's judgment on that people as part of the judgments pronounced against various nations. The prophecy starts with the earthly king of Babylon and rises to Lucifer, the day-star, the son of the morning, who has inspired Babylon in all her wickedness, as its highest king. The chapter identifies Satan as the ruler of Babylon, the false religious system whose spirit and authority extend through the kingdoms it rules, and sets forth God's refuge from Babylon's doom.
The prophecy of Babylon's destruction was spoken before the city reached its height of glory. Its fulfillment is demonstrated by the city's fall to the Persians and by its eventual desolation becoming as Sodom and Gomorrah. The verse is part of the proverb Israel takes up against the king of Babylon, who is the Papal king of Mystery Babylon, after God chooses Israel again the second time and gives them rest from sorrow and fear and the hard bondage wherein they were made to serve. The passage declares the oppressor has ceased, the Lord has broken the staff of the wicked and the sceptre of the rulers, he who smote the people with a continual stroke and ruled the nations in anger is laid low, the whole earth is at rest and quiet and breaks forth into singing, and since he was laid down no feller has come up against God's people, who are figured by the rejoicing fir trees and cedars of Lebanon.