Isaiah 14

1For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob; he will again choose Israel and settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

2Peoples will take them and bring them to their own place, and the house of Israel will possess those peoples in Yahweh’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who took them captive and rule over those who oppressed them.

3On the day Yahweh gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and from the hard labor forced on you,

4you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: “How the oppressor has come to an end! How his raging has ceased!

5Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers,

6that struck the peoples in fury with unceasing blows, that ruled the nations in anger with relentless persecution.

7The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break out in singing.

8Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon: ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’

9Sheol below is stirred up to meet you when you arrive; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones.

10They will all answer and say to you, ‘You too have become as weak as we are! You have become like us!

11Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are spread out beneath you, and worms are your covering.’

12How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you have been cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!

13You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north.

14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

15But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.

16Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,

17who made the world like a wilderness and overthrew its cities, who would not let his prisoners go home?’

18All the kings of the nations, every one of them, lie in glory, each in his own tomb.

19But you are cast out of your grave like a loathsome branch, covered with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a corpse trampled underfoot.

20You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land and killed your people. The offspring of evildoers will never be named again.

21Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their fathers, so that they do not rise up and possess the earth and fill the face of the world with cities.”

22I will rise up against them, declares Yahweh of Armies. I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and descendants, declares Yahweh.

23I will make it a possession for the hedgehog and a place of marshes, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, declares Yahweh of Armies.

24Yahweh of Armies has sworn: Surely as I have intended, so it will be, and as I have planned, so it will stand:

25I will break Assyria in my land and trample him on my mountains. His yoke will be removed from them, and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.

26This is the plan determined for the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.

27For Yahweh of Armies has planned it, and who can thwart it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?

28In the year that King Ahaz died, this oracle came:

29Do not rejoice, Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for from the root of the snake will come a viper, and its offspring will be a flying fiery serpent.

30The firstborn of the poor will graze, and the needy will lie down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and it will slay your survivors.

31Wail, you gate! Cry out, you city! Melt away, Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in its ranks.

32What answer will be given to the messengers of that nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will find refuge.