Isaiah
14
- The LORD will have compassion on Jacob;
once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Aliens
will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.
- Nations will take them and bring them to
their own place. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants
and maidservants in the LORD'S land. They will make captives of their captors
and rule over their oppressors.
- On the day the LORD gives you relief from
suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage,
- you will take up this taunt against the
king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended
!
- The LORD has broken the rod of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,
- which in anger struck down peoples with
unceasing blows, and in fury subdued nations with relentless aggression.
- All the lands are at rest and at peace;
they break into singing.
- Even the pine trees and the cedars of Lebanon
exult over you and say, "Now that you have been laid low, no woodsman
comes to cut us down."
- The grave below is all astir to meet you
at your coming; it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you -- all
those who were leaders in the world; it makes them rise from their thrones
-- all those who were kings over the nations.
- They will all respond, they will say to
you, "You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us."
- All your pomp has been brought down to the
grave, along with the noise of your harps; maggots are spread out beneath
you and worms cover you.
- How you have fallen from heaven, O morning
star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once
laid low the nations !
- You said in your heart, "I will ascend
to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned
on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
- I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High."
- But you are brought down to the grave, to
the depths of the pit.
- Those who see you stare at you, they ponder
your fate: "Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble,
- the man who made the world a desert, who
overthrew its cities and would not let his captives go home ?"
- All the kings of the nations lie in state,
each in his own tomb.
- But you are cast out of your tomb like a
rejected branch; you are covered with the slain, with those pierced by the
sword, those who descend to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trampled
underfoot,
- you will not join them in burial, for you
have destroyed your land and killed your people. The offspring of the wicked
will never be mentioned again.
- Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for
the sins of their forefathers; they are not to rise to inherit the land and
cover the earth with their cities.
- "I will rise up against them,"
declares the LORD Almighty. "I will cut off from Babylon her name and
survivors, her offspring and descendants," declares the LORD.
- "I will turn her into a place for owls
and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,"
declares the LORD Almighty.
- The LORD Almighty has sworn, "Surely,
as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.
- I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on
my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people,
and his burden removed from their shoulders."
- This is the plan determined for the whole
world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations.
- For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and
who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back ?
- This oracle came in the year King Ahaz died:
- Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that
the rod that struck you is broken; from the root of that snake will spring
up a viper, its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent.
- The poorest of the poor will find pasture,
and the needy will lie down in safety. But your root I will destroy by famine;
it will slay your survivors.
- Wail, O gate! Howl, O city! Melt away, all
you Philistines! A cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there is not a
straggler in its ranks.
- What answer shall be given to the envoys
of that nation? "The LORD has established Zion, and in her his afflicted
people will find refuge."
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