Anthropological: Understanding these three verses requires an understanding of the importance of burial in the ancient world. Many cultures tied the idea of a proper burial to the rest of the soul. An unburied body would not allow the soul to enter into its proper rest. Once the concept of a burial was deemed essential, the nature of the burial became significative as well. Just as all men wear clothing, but the types and kinds of clothing distinguish social status, so with the burial the type and manner of the burial indicated social status.
In these three verses, Babylon’s king is compared to other great kings of the past. All have died, and the great kings of the past “lie in glory, everyone of them in his own house (tomb).” (verse 18.) Thus these kings of the past received not only burials, but burials befitting their status.
In verse 19 we find the king of Babylon “cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch.” This king has also died, but in death has no tomb, in fact has no grave. The fall of the king of Babylon is so great that not only is he not accorded the “house” befitting a king, but is not even worthy of a burial, a courtesy that would be understood as the right of even the lowest peasant.
Verse 20 indicates that the reason for this separation from the great kings of the past is directly related to the way the king treated his subjects (both people and land.) As we have noted in the past, Isaiah portrays God with a justice that extends to all his people, not only those of the highest classes, and God’s wrath is upon those who abuse their power by oppressing the poorer and weaker (see Isaiah 5:8; 9:14-16; 10:1-2.)
Literary: Verse 19 compares the king of Babylon to a branch: “But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch…” It is possible that this is a conscious use of the image introduced in Isaiah 11:1/2 Nephi 21:1 (see also Isaiah 4:2) where the Messiah is also a “branch.” The association of the kings and the tree of life would make the comparison of both the Messiah and the king of Babylon to such a symbolic branch valid, but with the very important distinction that the Messiah as a branch is alive, and the king of Babylon is a branch without life. Thus the contrast is of a Messiah with power versus a Babylon with no power nor hope.
Variant: Verse 19 in the KJV has “…and as the raiment of those that are slain…” The Book of Mormon replaces the word “raiment” with “remnant.” Tvedtnes notes that “raiment” is clearly in the Masoretic text, and that this is most likely attributable to a mistake as the scribe heard the word, or a mistake during the copying for the printer’s manuscript (Tvedtnes, 1981, p. 59). Such a mistake would not be all that surprising, for the sound of the words (if not the writing) is sufficiently similar to make a mis-hearing understandable, but we also have the word “remnant” occurring in a number of cases (and “remnant” becomes a popular word in the Doctrine and Covenants, indicating that it was part of Joseph’s active vocabulary, and presumably that of his peers.)