John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 14:12

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!" — Isaiah 14:12 (ASV)

How you are fallen from heaven! Isaiah proceeds with the discourse he had previously begun, speaking as the dead, and concludes that the tyrant does not differ in any respect from other men, though his aim was to make people believe he was some kind of god. He employs an elegant metaphor, comparing him to Lucifer and calling him the Son of the Dawn, because of the splendor and brightness with which he outshone others.

The exposition of this passage, which some have offered, suggesting it refers to Satan, has arisen from ignorance; for the context plainly shows that these statements must be understood as referring to the king of the Babylonians. But when passages of Scripture are taken up randomly, and no attention is paid to the context, we should not be surprised that mistakes of this kind often occur.

Yet it was an instance of profound ignorance to imagine that Lucifer was the king of devils and that the Prophet gave him this name. But since these fabrications have no credibility whatsoever, let us dismiss them as useless fables.

Casting the lot upon the nations, or weakening the nations. Translators have mistaken the meaning of this clause by rendering the participle הולש (holesh) passively as, You have become weak, for its meaning is active. But since the verb from which it is derived means to cast a lot, and since the preposition על, (gnal), upon, is added here, it is best to understand it in this sense: that, as the ruler and disposer of all countries, he assigned them by lot or held them as his own possessions. And yet I do not reject the other meaning, that he weakened the nations.