Lucifer

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

We meet with this name  Isaiah 14:12. Various have been the opinions of commentators, who is meant by it. Some have supposed it refered to the morning star, because to the name Lucifer is added "son of the morning;" and in confirmation they refer to that passage, ( Job 38:7) where at the creation, the morning stars are said "to have sung together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." But it should seem, that this is a total perversion of the passage, for Lucifer is said to be fallen; and moreover, Jesus is, in a special and personal manner, called "the morning star." ( Revelation 22:16)

Other commentators, with much greater probability of truth, have supposed, that by Lucifer is meant the Devil, who once was among the bright ornaments of heaven, but by apostacy is fallen; and this agrees with the whole context. Hell from beneath is said to have moved; at his coming. ( Isaiah 14:9) And agreeably to this opinion we find that the general name of Lucifer hath been assigned to the devil in all the christian church,

But there are others, who in their comments on this part of Isaiah's prophecy, accept the whole passage as referring literally to the king of Babylon, with which the subject opens at the fourth verse. If read in this light, the whole passage is solemn, magnificent; and striking. The greatness and power of the king of Babylon is described in very lofty characters: his city is called the golden city. He is said to have made the earth to tremble, and to have shaken kingdoms. The prophet next describes his tyranny, despotism, and cruelty. He smote the people in wrath, and that not occasionally, but continually; and so irresistible was his power, that none could hinder. At length he falls. The earth gains instant rest, and by a beautiful figure of rhetoric, is said to break forth into singing. Then comes in the awful account of the succeeding state to the present life. "Hell from beneath is moved at his coming." The territories of the damned are represented as opening to receive a more than ordinary guest, now come to take up his eternal dwelling there; and the dead, and the chief ones of the earth, who when alive trembled at his power, now all brought together into one common level of horror and misery, are represented as insulting over his calamity. "Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"

Perhaps there never was a finer piece of imagery in any description ever given. The movement of hell to meet this stranger, this great one, is beyond all conception sublime, as if those infernal regions of horror felt convulsed at his approach, and thus testified their welcome. And the taunting compliments from the kings and great men of the earth, whom the monarch of Babylon had hastened and sent there before their time, is wonderfully conceived, to shew what deep and bitter malignity the conversation of hell is made up of, to aggravate the torments of the damned, and to fill up the full-heaped measure of corrosive and everlasting misery. But when the reader hath done with his observation on this awful prospect, I beg yet more earnestly to call his attention to another, by way of finishing the subject, which comes home to every breast, or ought at least so to do, and which is not confined to person or character, but universally concerns all mankind.

Whether this Lucifer, son of the morning, be or be not either of the characters before mentioned, yet for every character and for every person, the entrance into the world of spirits is opened at death. Whether, hell from beneath is moved at the unawakened sinner's coming, or heaven from above opens her golden gates to receive the redeemed regenerated saint in Jesus, this Scripture, with others to the same amount, plainly testify that that thinking faculty, that immortal incorporeal part, which at death separates from the body, hastens into the world of spirits like its own, and exists in a state perfectly distinct from and unconnected with the body, and will so continue until the general resurrection. What a solemn thought, if properly attended to, and yet increasingly more solemn to every inhabitant of the earth when considered also, that the time of this separation may be the next moment for ought we know, when the disembodied soul shall receive the summons for departure.

And there is another thought connected with it, which gives solemnity to the former, and which this Scripture tends to prove, namely, that in that world of spirits they think and speak, have conversation and fellowship, with each other, as familiarly as we have with each other that are yet in the body. How remote from hence is not said. It may be immensely distant; it may be very near. One thing is certain, as this Scripture shews, namely, that they are intimately acquainted with the past circumstances of their own lives, and the lives of others with whom they dwelt. And hence, though they cease for ever from us, and we from them, in respect to farther communion; though as the Scripture saith, "Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not," ( Isaiah 63:16) yet the existence is made up of identity, consciousness, and unceasing thinking, and acting, and the most lively perception. Hence, in either state, and in both states, the happiness of the blessed, and the misery of the damned, infinitely surpasseth the utmost conception our present faculties can form. Oh, the multitude, the unnumbered, unknown, unanswerable arguments which the Scriptures hold forth "to seek the things which make for our everlasting peace, and to flee from the wrath to come."

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

"light bringer", "the morning star":  Isaiah 14:12 ( Helel , "spreading brightness".) Symbol of the once bright but now fallen king of Babylon. The title belongs of right to Christ ( Revelation 22:16), therefore about to be assumed by antichrist, of whom Babylon is type and mystical Babylon the forerunner ( Revelation 17:4-5). The language is primarily drawn from that of Satan himself, the spirit that energized the pagan world power Babylon, that now energizes the apostate church, and shall at last energize the last secular antichrist (The Fourth Kingdom Little Horn) and his champion, the false prophet (The Third Kingdom Little Horn) , the harlot's successor, who shall oppress Israel, as the fourth kingdom little horn oppresses the Gentile world:  Daniel 7:8-26 (Chaldee);  Daniel 8:9-11 (Hebrew);  Revelation 13:4;  Revelation 16:13-14;  2 Thessalonians 2:9. "Lucifer" is thus naturally applied to Satan ( Luke 10:18;  Revelation 12:8-9;  Judges 1:6). Jesus saith, cf6 "I will give him that overcometh the morning star", i.e. Myself ( Revelation 2:28;  Revelation 22:16); reflecting My brightness, he shall shine like Me "the morning star," sharing My kingly glory of which a star is the symbol ( Numbers 24:17;  Matthew 2:2).

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

LUCIFER. In   Isaiah 14:12 occurs the phrase ‘helçl ( helâl ) ben shachar ,’ commonly but incorrectly rendered ‘Lucifer son of the morning,’ as if the expression helçl ( helâl ) must mean ‘the morning-star’ (cf. AVm [Note: Authorized Version margin.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘ day-star ’). In this connexion, helçl ( helâl ) can denote only the waning of some luminary, as it is forcibly compared with the impending fate of the then king of Babylon, whose utter destruction the prophet is engaged in foretelling, The waning luminary intended by the author may probably have been only the old moon crescent seen at dawn, just about to disappear. It could scarcely have been a morning-star, whose chief point would be its brightness. This allusion to a waning luminary possibly reflects some myth similar to the Greek Phaethon legend (Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos , 132 134). From a supposed reference in   Luke 10:18 and   Revelation 9:1-11 to this passage in Isaiah, the name ‘Lucifer’ came to be used synonymously with ‘Satan.’

N. A. Koenig.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Lu'cifer. (Light-Bearer). Found in  Isaiah 14:12 coupled with the epithet "Son Of The Morning", clearly signifies a "Bright Star", and probably what we call [[The Morning Star]] . In this passage, it is a symbolical representation of the king of Babylon, in his splendor and in his fall.

Its application, from St. Jerome downward, to Satan in his fall from heaven, arises probably from the fact that the Babylonian empire is, in Scripture, represented as the type of tyrannical and self idolizing power, and especially connected with the empire of the Evil One in the Apocalypse.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) A genus of free-swimming macruran Crustacea, having a slender body and long appendages.

(2): ( n.) A match made of a sliver of wood tipped with a combustible substance, and ignited by friction; - called also lucifer match, and locofoco. See Locofoco.

(3): ( n.) The planet Venus, when appearing as the morning star; - applied in Isaiah by a metaphor to a king of Babylon.

(4): ( n.) Hence, Satan.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Light-bringer, the Latin name of the morning-star, or "son of the morning." In the figurative language of Scripture, a brilliant star denoted an illustrious prince,  Numbers 24:17 . Christ was given to men as the "bright and morning Star,"  Revelation 2:28;  22:16 . The word Lucifer is used once only in the English Bible, and then of the king of Babylon,  Isaiah 14:12 . It is now commonly, though inappropriately, given to the prince of darkness.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Lucifer ( Lû'Si-Fer ), Light-Bringer. The original word signifies brilliant star, I.E., the morning star. The title is applied to the king of Babylon in  Isaiah 14:12, R. V., day star; he had outshone other kings, as the bright star of the morning surpasses other stars. Falling from heaven denotes a sudden political overthrow or catastrophe. In popular language Lucifer is regarded as an appellation of Satan.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Name, signifying in Latin 'light-bringer,' being a translation of the Hebrew word, helel, associated with 'morning star,' given in irony to the king of Babylon, because in his pride he said he would exalt his throne above the stars of God.  Isaiah 14:12 . He resembles the leader of this world in the last days.  Revelation 13:1-10 .

King James Dictionary

LU'CIFER, n. L. lux, lucis, light, and fero, to bring.

1. The planet Venus, so called from its brightness. 2. Satan.

And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology

See Satan

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Isaiah 14:12

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Isaiah 14:12

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Heb. Heylel', הֵילֵל ; Sept. Ὁ ῾Εωσφόρος ), a word that once occurs in the English Version in the lines,

"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!"

( Isaiah 14:12). It is taken from the Vulgate, which understood the Hebrew word to be the name of the morning star, and therefore rendered it by the Latin name of that star, Lucifer, i.e., "light-bringing." The derivation has been supposed to be from הָלִל , Halal , to shine. The same word here translated "Lucifer," however, occurs also in  Ezekiel 21:12 [17], as the imperative of יָלִל , Yalal , " to howl," "to lament," and is there rendered "howl." Some take it in the same acceptation in the above passage, and would translate. "Howl, son of the morning!" But to this the structure of the verse is entirely opposed, for the parallelism requires the second line to refer entirely to the condition of the star before it had fallen, as the parallel member, the fourth line, does to the state of the tree before it was cut down. Hence the former derivation is to be preferred, namely, "brilliant," "splendid," "illustrious," or, as in the Septuagint, Vulgate, the rabbinical commentators, Luther, and others, "brilliant star;" and if Henylel, in this sense, was the proper name among the Hebrews of the morning star, then "Lucifer" is not only a correct but beautiful interpretation, both as regards the sense and the application. That it was such is probable from the fact that the proper name of the morning star is formed by a word or words expressive of brilliance, in the Arabic and Syriac, as well as in the Greek and Latin (see Gesenius, Commentar, ad loc.). Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan; in consequence of which the name Lucifer has since been applied to Satan, and this is how the usual acceptation of the word. But Dr. Henderson, who in his Isaiah renders the line "Illustrious son of the morning!" justly remarks in his annotation: "The application of this passage to Satan, and to the fall of the apostate angels, is one of those gross perversions of Sacred Writ which so extensively obtain, and which are to be traced to a proneness to seek for more in any given passage than it really contains, a disposition to be influenced by sound rather than sense, and an implicit faith in received interpretations." The scope and connection show that none but the king of Babylon is meant. In the figurative language of the Hebrews, a star signifies an illustrious king or prince ( Numbers 24:17; compare  Revelation 2:28;  Revelation 22:16). The monarch here referred to, laving surpassed all other kings in royal splendor, is compared to the harbinger of day, whose brilliancy surpasses that of the surrounding stars. Falling from heaven denotes a sudden political overthrow — a removal from the position of high and conspicuous dignity formerly occupied (comp.  Revelation 6:13;  Revelation 8:10). Delitzsch adopts the same view (Comment. ad loc.). "In another and far higher sense, however, the designation was applicable to him in whom promise and fulfillment entirely corresponded, and it is so applied by Jesus when he styles himself 'The bright and morning Star' ( Revelation 22:16). In a certain sense it is the emblem also of all those who are destined to live and reign with him ( Revelation 2:28)." (See Star).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Lu´cifer, a word that occurs once in the English Version in the lines—

'How art thou fallen from heaven,

Lucifer, son of the morning!

How art thou felled to the ground,

That didst weaken the nations!'

. The meaning of the Hebrew word seems to be 'brilliant,' 'splendid,' 'illustrious,' and it appears to have been the Hebrew name of the morning star. Tertullian and Gregory the Great understood this passage of Isaiah in reference to the fall of Satan; in consequence of which the name Lucifer has since been applied to Satan; and this is now the usual acceptation of the word. But Dr. Henderson, who in his Isaiah renders the line, 'Illustrious son of the morning!' justly remarks in his annotation: 'The application of this passage to Satan, and to the fall of the apostate angels, is one of those gross perversions of Sacred Writ which so extensively obtain, and which are to be traced to a proneness to seek for more in any given passage than it really contains, a disposition to be influenced by sound rather than sense, and an implicit faith in received interpretations. The scope and connection show that none but the king of Babylon is meant. In the figurative language of the Hebrews a star signifies an illustrious king or prince (; comp.; ). The monarch here referred to, having surpassed all other kings in royal splendor, is compared to the harbinger of day, whose brilliancy surpasses that of the surrounding stars. Falling from heaven denotes a sudden political overthrow—a removal from the position of high and conspicuous dignity formerly occupied (comp.; ).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

lū´si - fẽr , lōō´si - fẽr  : The morning star, an epithet of the planet Venus. See Astrology , 11.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

E . light-bringer), name given to Venus as the morning star, and by the Church Fathers to Satan in interpretation of Isaiah xiv. 12.