They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all remembrance of them to perish.

Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and best destroyed all their memory.

Dead, they live not, Rephaim, they rise not, Therefore Thou hast inspected and dost destroy them, Yea, thou destroyest all their memory.

The dead will not come back to life: their spirits will not come back to earth; for this cause you have sent destruction on them, so that the memory of them is dead.

The dead live not, the shades rise not; To that end hast Thou punished and destroyed them, And made all their memory to perish.

The dead shall not live, and the departed spirits shall not rise. Therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish.

Let not the dead live; let not the giants rise up again. For this reason, you have visited and destroyed them, and you have perished all remembrance of them.

Mortui non vivent; occisi non resurgent; propterea visitasti, et exterminasti eos; et perdidisti omnem memoriam eorum.

The dead shall not live. [1] The Prophet again speaks of the unhappy end of the wicked, whose prosperity often agitates and vexes us, as we read in the Psalms of David. (Psalm 37:1, 73:3, 17.) That our eyes may not be dazzled by the present appearances of things, he foretells that their end will be very miserable. Others interpret this passage as relating to believers, who appear to die without any hope of a resurrection; but unquestionably he speaks of the reprobate, and this will be still more evident from an opposite statement which he makes at the nineteenth verse. There is a contrast between the resurrection of good men and wicked men, [2] between whom there would be little difference, were it not evident that the latter are sentenced to eternal death, and that the former will receive a blessed and everlasting life: and not only does eternal death await the wicked, but all the sufferings which they endure in this world are the commencement of everlasting destruction; for they cannot be soothed by any consolation, and they feel that God is their enemy. The slain shall not rise again. [3] The word which we render slain is rendered by others giants; [4] but as in many passages of Scripture rph'ym [5] (rEphaim) denotes slain, so also in this passage it will be more appropriate, for otherwise there would be no contrast. (Psalm 88:11; Proverbs 2:18; 9:18; 21:16.) Therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them. This is added for the sake of explanation; for it assigns the reason why the reprobate perish without hope, namely, because it is the purpose of God to destroy them. In the wrath of God they have nothing to look for but death and ruin.

Footnotes

1 - "(They are) dead, they shall not live." -- Eng. Ver.

2 - "Des fideles et des infideles;" -- "Of believers and unbelievers."

3 - "(They are) deceased, they shall not rise." -- Eng. Ver.

4 - Professor Alexander renders rph'ym (rEphaim) ghosts and remarks, "It is here a poetical equivalent to mtym (methim,) and may be variously rendered shades, shadows, spirits, or the like. The common version (deceased) leaves too entirely out of view the figurative character of the expression. Giants, on the contrary, is too strong, and could only be employed in this connection in the sense of gigantic shades, or shadows."

5 - As if the reading had been not rEphaim, but rOphEim, the Seventy render it iatroi ou me anastesousi, "physicians shall not rise again." -- Ed

They are dead - That is, the kings and tyrants to whom reference is made in Isaiah 26:13. The principal enemies of the Jews, who had oppressed them, were slain when Babylon was taken by Cyrus (see the notes at Isaiah. 13; 14)
They shall not live - They shall not again live, and be permitted to harass and enslave us.
They are deceased - Hebrew, רפאים repâ'iym - a name given to the shades or manes of the dead, from an idea that they were weak and powerless (see the notes at Isaiah 14:9-10; compare Psalm 88:11; Proverbs 2:18; Proverbs 9:18; Proverbs 21:16). The sense here is, that they had died and gone to the land of shades, and were now unable anymore to reach or injure the people of God.
Therefore - Or rather, "for"; the word לכן lākên being used evidently in the sense of because that, as in Genesis 38:26; Numbers 11:31; Numbers 14:13; Psalm 42:7; Psalm 45:3. The declaration that follows is given as the reason why they were dead, and incapable of again injuring or annoying them.
Hast thou visited - (see the note at Isaiah 24:22) The word 'visit' here is used in the sense of to punish.
And made all their memory to perish - Hast blotted out their name; hast caused their celebrity to cease.

[They are] (n) dead, they shall not live; [they are] deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
(n) Meaning that the reprobate even in this life will have the beginning of everlasting death.

They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise,.... The above tyrannical lords, the kings of the earth and their mighty men, associates of the Romish antichrist, who shall be gathered together, and slain at the battle at Armageddon; these shall not live again in this world, nor rise from their graves, and return to their former state, power, and authority; or tyrannise over, molest, disturb, oppress, and persecute the people of God any more; though they shall live again at the end of the thousand years, and shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt, and come forth to the resurrection of damnation. The Targum is,
"they worship the dead, who do not live; and their mighty men, who shall not rise;''
and are opposed to the worshippers of the only Lord God:
therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish; or, "because thou hast visited", &c. (d); for these words are a reason why they are irrecoverably lost, and shall not live in eternal life, or rise in the resurrection of the just; because God has visited them in wrath, destroyed them in and for their sins, with such an utter destruction, that they shall be remembered no more. This visitation will be at Armageddon, when the kings, and captains and great men will be slain; the beast and false prophet taken, and cast alive into the furnace of fire; and the rest will be killed by the sword, proceeding out of the mouth of Christ, Revelation 19:18. The Targum interprets it of God's casting the wicked into hell.
(d) "propterea", V. L. Junius & Tremellius; "propterea quod", Piscator, De Dieu.

They--The "other lords" or tyrants (Isaiah 26:13).
shall not live--namely, again.
deceased--Hebrew, "Rephaim"; powerless, in the land of shades (Isaiah 14:9-10).
therefore--that is, inasmuch as. Compare "therefore" (Genesis 18:5; Genesis 19:8).

The tyrants who usurped the rule over Israel have now utterly disappeared. "Dead men live not again, shades do not rise again: so hast Thou visited and destroyed them, and caused all their memory to perish." The meaning is not that Jehovah had put them to death because there was no resurrection at all after death; for, as we shall see further on, the prophet was acquainted with such a resurrection. In mēthim (dead men) and rephâ'im (shades) he had directly in mind the oppressors of Israel, who had been thrust down into the region of the shades (like the king of Babylon in chapter 14), so that there was no possibility of their being raised up or setting themselves up again. The לכן is not argumentative (which would be very freezing in this highly lyrical connection), but introduces what must have occurred eo ipso when the other had taken place (it corresponds to the Greek ἄρα, and is used here in the same way as in Isaiah 61:7; Jeremiah 5:2; Jeremiah 2:33; Zac 11:7; Job 34:25; Job 42:3). They had fallen irrevocably into Sheol (Psalm 49:15), and consequently God had swept them away, so that not even their name was perpetuated.

Rise - Those tyrants are destroyed; they shall never live or rise again to molest us.