THE BOOK OF ISAIAH

 

Isaiah Chapter 14

1 ¶ For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land: and foreigners will join with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.

2 The nations will escort them, and bring them to their homeland: and the house of Israel will possess them as servants and handmaids in the land of the LORD: and they will take captive, those whose captives they had been; and they will rule over their oppressors.

3 And it will come to pass in the day that the LORD gives you relief from your sorrow, your fear, and the hard bondage under which you were made to serve,

4 ¶ That you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How was the tyrant silenced! And the golden city brought to an end!

5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers.

6 He who struck down the people in fury with blows that did not stop, he who trampled on nations in anger, persecuting them without restraint.

7 The whole earth rests quietly: and breaks into singing.

8 Even the fir trees are glad about you, and the cedars of Lebanon say, Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter has come up against us.

9 Hell below is eager to greet you at your coming: it stirs up the spirits of the dead for you, even those who had been leaders on the earth; it makes all who had been kings of the nations leave their thrones.

10 All of them will say to you, You too lost your strength as we did, and you have become like us.

11 Your pomp has been brought down to the grave, with the music of your lutes: the maggots are spread under you, and the worms cover you.

12 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how you are cut down to the ground, O you who laid the nations low!

13 For you said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit on the mountain of the congregation, on the sides of the north:

14 I will ascend above the highest clouds; I will be like the most High.

15 But you will be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

16 Those who see you will stare at you, and consider you, saying, Is this the man who made the earth tremble, and shook the kingdoms;

17 Who turned the world into a wasteland, and destroyed its cities; who would not permit his prisoners to return home?

18 All the kings of the nations, without exception, lie in glorious array, every one in his own tomb.

19 But you are tossed out of your grave like a worthless branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit, like a trampled corpse.

20 You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, and killed your people: the offspring of evildoers will never be highly regarded.

21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons because of their father’s guilt; so that they do not rise up, possess the land, or fill the face of the world with cities.

22 For I will rise up against them, says the LORD of armies, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, son and son’s son, says the LORD.

23 I will also make it a marshy land, and the domain of hedgehogs: and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says the LORD of hosts.

24 ¶ The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely it will happen as I planned it; and as I decided, so it will be:

25 I will smash the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains: then his yoke will be taken from them, and his burden will depart from their shoulders.

26 This is what I have planned to do to the whole world: this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations.

27 For the LORD of hosts has decided it, who can undo it? his hand is stretched out, who can turn it back?

28 In the year that king Ahaz died, this word was received from God.

29 Do not rejoice, you Philistines, because the rod of one who struck you is broken: for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder, and its offspring will be a fiery flying reptile.

30 And the poorest of the poor will have food, and the needy will lie down in safety: but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be slain.

31 Howl, O gate; cry out, O city; melt away in terror all you Philistines: for smoke is coming from the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.

32 What answer will be given to the nation’s messengers? Tell them that the LORD has founded Zion, and the afflicted of his people will find refuge there.