Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 14:20

"Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people; the seed of evil-doers shall not be named for ever." — Isaiah 14:20 (ASV)

Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial ... —The curse of the dishonored death is connected with its cause. The conqueror had inflicted that shame even on his own people, and was punished in like kind himself. Compare Jeremiah’s prediction as to Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:19), and parallel instances in 2 Chronicles 21:20; 2 Chronicles 24:25; Ezekiel 29:5.

The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. —Literally, shall not be named forever. Here we have a parallel in the sentence on Coniah (Jeremiah 22:30). In the inscription of Eshmunazzar, king of Sidon (quoted by Cheyne), we have both elements of the imprecation: “Let him (the man who violates the sacredness of the king’s tomb) not have a couch with the shade, and let him not be buried in the grave, and let him not have son or seed in his place.” In the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser (Records of the Past, volume 5, page 26) and Merôdach-baladan III (in the same work, volume 9, page 36), we find similar curses.

Historically, as the Behistun inscription shows, the dynasty of Nabopolassar disappeared from history, and Darius boasts of having subdued an impostor, a second Nebuchadnezzar, who claimed to represent it (Records of the Past, volume 1, page 114).