Satan in Ezekiel and Isaiah

Christianity insists that both Ezekiel and Isaiah talk about Satan, and use both to contrive the narrative of Satan falling from heaven. The reality is that both passages are about earthly kings.

Ezekiel

This is the text that is supposedly about Satan.

Ezekiel 28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;

Every precious stone was your covering:

The ruby, the topaz and the diamond;

The beryl, the onyx and the jasper;

The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald;

And the gold, the workmanship of your [f]settings and [g]sockets,

Was in you.

On the day that you were created

They were prepared.

14 You were the anointed cherub who [h]covers,

And I placed you there.

You were on the holy mountain of God;

You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.

15 You were blameless in your ways

From the day you were created

Until unrighteousness was found in you.

16 By the abundance of your trade

[i]You were internally filled with violence,

And you sinned;

Therefore I have cast you as profane

From the mountain of God.

And I have destroyed you, you [j]covering cherub,

From the midst of the stones of fire.

17 Your heart was haughty because of your beauty;

You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.

I threw you to the ground;

I put you before kings,

That they may see you.

18 By the multitude of your wrongdoings,

In the unrighteousness of your trade

You profaned your sanctuaries.

Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you;

It has consumed you,

And I have turned you to ashes on the earth

In the eyes of all who see you.

The rationale for it being about Satan is that it says the person discussed was in Eden. What this ignores, of course, is that it was a snake in Eden, not Satan.

Moreover, this is a metaphor. The text is about the King of Tyre, who lived in a palace so wonderful it was comparable to Eden. How do we know this? Well, from the context. Not least of all, verse 2, which explicitly states this is directed at the King of Tyre:

Ezekiel 28:1 The word of the Lord came again to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, say to the [a]leader of Tyre, ‘The Lord [b]God says this:

“Because your heart is haughty

And you have said, ‘I am a god,

I sit in the seat of [c]gods

In the heart of the seas’;

Yet you are a mortal and not God,

Although you make your heart like the heart of God—

But perhaps we need to look at the greater context. Let us go back to Ezekiel 25... This is a judgement on various gentile nations; Ammon, Moab, Edom and Philistia. Then in Ezekiel 26 we get to Tyre. And we know it is about Tyre, because it says it is.

Ezekiel 26:1 Now in the eleventh year, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, because Tyre has said in regard to Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gateway of the peoples is broken; it has [a]opened to me. I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste,’ 3 therefore this is what the Lord [b]God says: ‘Behold, I am against you, Tyre, and I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. 4 They will destroy the walls of Tyre and tear down her towers; and I will sweep her debris away from her and make her a bare rock. 5 She will become a dry place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken,’ declares the Lord God; ‘and she will become plunder for the nations. 6 Also her daughters who are [c]on the mainland will be killed by the sword, and they will know that I am the Lord.’”

7 For the Lord God says this: “Behold, I am going to bring upon Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, chariots, cavalry, and [d]a great army. 8 He will kill your daughters [e]on the mainland with the sword; and he will make siege walls against you, pile up an assault ramp against you, and raise up a large shield against you.

This was an actual historical event, a thirteen year siege mentioned by Josephus, dated to around 585 to 573 BC.

Chapters 27 and 28 - including the verses quotes above - are a scornful lament to sing to the king of Tyre, Ithobaal III, for when the city eventually fell.

It also includes this prediction that Tyre would fall, and be utterly destroyed:

Ezekiel 27:36 The merchants among the peoples hiss at you;

You have become [r]terrified

And you will cease to be forever.’”’”

In fact, the city survived the siege, as Ezekiel 29:18 indicates.

Ezekiel 29:17 Now in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor [r]hard against Tyre; every head [s]had a bald spot and every shoulder was rubbed raw. But he and his army acquired no wages from Tyre for the labor that he had [t]performed against it.” 19 Therefore this is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am going to give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. And he will carry off her wealth and capture her spoils and seize her plunder; and it will be wages for his army. 20 I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor which he [u]performed, because they acted for Me,” declares the Lord God.

I guess this was written at a slightly later date. Ezekiel had likely lived through the Babylonians besieging Jerusalem twice, and knew full well the might of their army. Chapters 26 to 28 were probably written hen the siege of Tyre was underway, and it seemed a safe bet the city would fall. Thus Ezekiel has God bring judgement on Tyre.

A few years later, the Babylonians gave up the siege, and turned their attentions to Egypt instead. So now Ezekiel decides God will not be smiting Tyre, despite all he said in chapters 26 to 28, and rather God is giving Egypt to the Babylonians.

Tyre is still around today, despite Ezekiel proclaiming "you will cease to be forever", and is noted in Wiki as "one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world". But I am sure its doom must have seemed imminent to Ezekiel.

The point here is that over chapters 26, 27, 28 and 29 the prophet Ezekiel is talking about he city of Tyre and the king of Tyre. It does not say Satan at all in Ezekiel, and there really is no reason to suppose six verses in the middle of that text are suddenly about a fallen angel.

Isaiah

Isaiah is a little different, as it actually mentions Lucifer:

Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Or does it?

In fact, modern translations do not say "Lucifer". This page at Bible Hub allows us to compare modern translations (which I take to be twentieth century or later) against traditional translations. There are fifteen modern translations, and the word "lucifer" is absent from them all.

Here is the NASB translation:

Isaiah 14:12 How you have fallen from heaven,

You [g]star of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who defeated the nations!

It turns out that "lucifer" is really just a sarcastic taunt. Oh look at you, so high and might, like a star, see how far you have fallen now!

So as with Ezekiel, there is no actual mention of Satan here. So what is it about? Let us look at the context. Chapter 13 gives a useful introduction to this section of Isaiah.

Isaiah 13:1 The pronouncement concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw:

2 Lift up a flag on the [a]bare hill,

Raise your voice to them,

Wave the hand that they may enter the doors of the nobles.

3 I have commanded My consecrated ones,

I have also called for My warriors

Who boast in My eminence,

To execute My anger.

This leaves us in no doubt that this is about Babylon. It says it right there in the text. When it was written, the Hebrews were in captivity, living in exile in Babylon, and this is Isaiah prophesising how the Babylonians will come to their doom:

Isaiah 13:17Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them,

Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold.

18 And their bows will [e]mow down the young men,

They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb,

Nor will their eye pity [f]children.

Chapter 14 is looking forward to that happy time:

Isaiah 14:1 When the Lord has compassion on Jacob and again chooses Israel, and settles them on their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will make them their own possession in the land of the Lord as male and female servants; and [a]they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

It then goes on to say exactly how the Hebrews were to taunt the king of Babylon, when this happened.

3 And it will be on the day when the Lord gives you rest from your hardship, your turmoil, and from the harsh service in which you have been enslaved, 4 that you will take up this [b]taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

“How the oppressor has ceased,

And how the [c]onslaught has ceased!

5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

The scepter of rulers,

6 Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,

Which [d]subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

...

11 Your pride and the music of your harps

Have been brought down to Sheol;

Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you

And worms are your covering.’

12 How you have fallen from heaven,

You [g]star of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who defeated the nations!

...

This, then, is a taunt to be used against the king of Babylon, and not anything to do with Satan.

This section of Isaiah ends:

Isaiah 14:22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of armies, “and eliminate from Babylon name and survivors, offspring and descendants,” declares the Lord. 23 “I will also make it the property of the hedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it away with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of armies.

Again, this is explicitly directed at Babylon, making it clear that this is not about Satan. The entire passage from Isaiah 13:1 to Isaiah 14:23 is about Babylon. To suppose that a few verses in the middle of that are talking about a fallen angel is just nonsense.

But the narrative matches Satan's fall from heaven!

Does it? Or was the fall from heaven concocted from these texts? What evidence is there for Satan's fall from grace outside these two texts?

The account of Satan's fall from heaven was invented out of these texts, so of course these texts match the account. That is exactly what we would expect if it was just made up, just as it is what we expect if