Isaiah 14

¹For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel , and will set them in their own land , and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob .

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

³When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve ,

⁴you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon : How the oppressor has ceased , the insolent fury ceased !

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked , the scepter of rulers ,

⁶that struck the peoples in wrath with unceasing blows , that ruled the nations in anger with unrelenting persecution .

⁷The whole earth is at rest and quiet ; they break forth into singing .

⁸, The cypresses rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon , saying, Since you were laid low , no woodcutter comes up against us.

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

¹⁰All of them will answer and say to you: You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!

¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol , the sound of your harps ; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers .

¹²How you are fallen from heaven , O Day Star , son of Dawn ! How you are cut down to the ground , you who laid the nations low !

¹³You said in your heart , I will ascend to heaven ; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high ; 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 desert and overthrew its cities , who did not let his prisoners go home ?

¹⁸All the kings of the nations lie in glory , each in his own tomb ;

¹⁹but you are cast out , away from your grave , like a loathed branch , clothed with the slain , those pierced by the sword , who go down to the stones of the pit , like a dead body trampled underfoot .

²⁰You will not be joined with them in burial , because you have destroyed your land , you have slain your people . May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named !

²¹Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers , lest they rise and possess the earth , and fill the face of the world with cities .

²²I will rise up against them, declares the Lord of hosts , and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant , descendants and posterity , declares the Lord.

²³And I will make it a possession of the hedgehog , and pools of water , and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction , declares the Lord of hosts .

²⁴The Lord of hosts has sworn : As I have planned , so shall it be, and as I have purposed , so shall it stand ,

²⁵that I will break the Assyrian in my land , and on my mountains trample him underfoot ; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder .

²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth , and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations .

²⁷For the Lord of hosts has purposed , and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out , and who will turn it back ?

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

²⁹Rejoice not , O Philistia , all of you, that the rod that struck you is broken , for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder , and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent .

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

³¹Wail , O gate ; cry out , O city ; melt in fear , O Philistia , all of you! For smoke comes out of the north , and there is no straggler in his ranks .

³²What will one answer the messengers of the nation ? The Lord has founded Zion , and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge .