God’s People Restored
14 For Adonai will have compassion on Jacob
and will again choose Israel
and settle them in their own land.
The outsider will join himself with them
and will cling to the house of Jacob.
2 The peoples will take them
and escort them to their place.
The house of Israel will possess them
in the land of Adonai as servants and handmaids.
They will take their captors captive,
and rule over their oppressors.
Taunt Against Babylon’s King
3 Now in the day when Adonai will give you rest from your sorrow and your turmoil, and from the hard service you were forced to do, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon and say:
“How the taskmaster has ceased!
The raging oppressor, exacter of gold, has ceased!
5 Adonai has broken the rod of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,
6 which struck the people in wrath
with continual strokes,
which ruled the nations in fury,
with relentless persecution.
7 The whole earth is at rest, and quiet.
They break forth with a ringing cry!
8 Even the cypress trees rejoice over you,
along with the cedars of Lebanon:
“Since you were laid low,
no woodcutter comes up against us.”
9 Sheol from below is excited about you,
to meet you at your coming!
He stirs up the dead spirits for you,
even the chief ones[a] of the earth.
He makes all the kings of the nations
rise up from their thrones.
10 They all answer and say to you:
“Even you have become as weak as us?
Have you become like us?
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol
with the music of your harps.
Maggots are spread out under you,
and worms cover you.”
Shining One Fallen From Heaven
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
O brighstar[b], son of the dawn![c]
How you are cut down to the earth,
you who made the nations prostrate!
13 You said in your heart:
“I will ascend to heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.[d]
I will sit upon the mount of meeting,
in the uttermost parts of the north.
14 I will ascend above the high places of the clouds—
I will make myself like Elyon.”
15 Yet you will be brought down to Sheol,
to the lowest parts of the Pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you,
reflecting on what has become of you:
“Is this the one who shook the earth,
who made kingdoms tremble,
17 who made the world a wilderness
and destroyed its cities,
who never opened the house of his prisoners?”
18 All the kings of the nations, all of them,
lie in glory, each in his own house.
19 But you are cast out of your tomb
as a discarded branch,
garment of the slain,
pierced with a sword,
dumped into a stony pit,
a corpse trodden underfoot.
20 You will not join with them in burial,
because you ruined your land,
you slaughtered your own people.
The offspring of evildoers will never be named.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children
for the iniquity of their fathers,
so they would not rise up and possess the land,
or fill the face of the earth with cities.
22 “For I will rise up against them”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—“and I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offshoot and offspring,” declares Adonai. 23 “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, with marshes of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction.” It is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
24 Adonai Tzva’ot has sworn, saying:
“Surely, as I thought it, so it will be.
As I have purposed, so it will stand.
25 I will break Assyria in My land.
On My mountains I will trample him.
Then his yoke will be taken off them,
his burden removed from their shoulder.
26 This is the purpose planned for the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.”
27 For Adonai-Tzva’ot has purposed,
so who will annul it?
Since His hand is stretched out,
who will turn it back?
Doom of Philistia
28 In the year king Ahaz died came this burden:
29 Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
that the rod that struck you is broken.
For from the serpent’s root comes a viper
and its fruit will be a flying serpent.
30 The firstborn of the poor will feed,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
I will kill your root with famine,
and your survivors will be slain.
31 Wail, O gate! Cry, O city!
Melt away, all you of Philistia!
For smoke is coming from the north,
and there is no straggler in its ranks.
32 What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
For Adonai has founded Zion,
and the afflicted of His people will find refuge in her.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 14:9 Lit. rams.
- Isaiah 14:12 Or shining one.
- Isaiah 14:12 cf. Luke 10:18.
- Isaiah 14:13 cf. 2 Thes. 2:3-4.