14
1 For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel and settle them on their own land. Foreigners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 The peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the land of the LORD. They will take captive those who held them captive and rule over their oppressors.
3 On the day the LORD gives you rest from your pain, your turmoil, and the hard servitude imposed on you,
4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon and say,
“How the oppressor has ceased, how the golden city has ceased!
5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers,
6 which struck peoples in fury with unceasing blows, which ruled nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 Even the cypresses rejoice over you, the cedars of Lebanon: ‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’
9 Sheol below is stirred to meet you when you come.
It rouses the spirits of the dead for you, all the leaders of the earth;
it raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.
10 They all answer and say to you, ‘You too have become weak like us;
you have become like us.
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps.
Maggots are spread beneath you, and worms are your covering.’
12 How you have fallen from heaven, shining one, son of dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth, you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God I will raise my throne.
I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north.
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you will be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world a wilderness, who tore down its cities and would not release his prisoners to go home?’
18 All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie in honor, each in his own house.
19 But you have been cast away from your grave like a loathed shoot, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword who go down to the stones of the pit, like a trampled corpse.
20 You will not join them in burial, because you destroyed your land and killed your people.
May the offspring of evildoers never be named again!
21 Prepare slaughter for his sons because of their fathers’ iniquity, lest they rise and possess the earth and fill the face of the world with cities.”
22 “I will rise against them,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and descendants,” declares the LORD.
23 “I will make her a possession for porcupines and pools of water;
I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of hosts.
24 The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so it shall be, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand:
25 I will break Assyria in my land and trample him on my mountains.
His yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden from their shoulder.”
26 This is the purpose determined against the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.
27 For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will thwart it?
His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?
28 In the year that King Ahaz died, this oracle came:
29 “Do not rejoice, all Philistia, because the rod of the one who struck you is broken.
For from the serpent’s root a viper will come forth, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
30 The poorest of the poor will graze, and the needy will lie down safely.
But I will kill your root with famine, and he will slay your remnant.
31 Wail, gate!
Cry out, city!
Melt away, all Philistia!
For smoke comes from the north, and no one straggles in its ranks.”
32 What shall one answer the messengers of the nation?
That the LORD has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will find refuge.