Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 14:17

"that made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew the cities thereof; that let not loose his prisoners to their home?" — Isaiah 14:17 (ASV)

That opened not the house of his prisoners. — Better, as in the margin, he loosed not his prisoners to their homes. This was, we may note, a characteristic feature of the cruelty of the Assyrian kings. So Sennacherib and Assurbanipal boast of having carried off captive kings in “chains of iron” (Records of the Past, volume 1, pages 43, 62, 72), and kept them chained like dogs in the court of their palace (in the same source, pages 93, 97). So Jehoiachin was kept in prison for thirty-seven years (Jeremiah 52:31).