Isaiah 14

1 “The Lord will have mercy on Jacob and choose Israel again. They will rest in their land, and the settler will join Jacob’s house.”

2 “The nations will take them and bring them to their place. They will inherit them and multiply in God’s land as male and female slaves. Their captors will become their captives, and their former masters will come under their rule.”

3 “On that day God will give you rest from sorrow, distress, and the hard slavery in which you served them.”

4 “You will take up this lament against the king of Babylon and say on that day, ‘How the oppressor has stopped, and how the taskmaster has stopped!’”

5 “God has broken the sinners’ yoke, the rulers’ yoke.”

6 “He struck a nation in wrath with an incurable blow, striking it in fury with a blow that did not spare.”

7 “He rests secure. The whole earth cries aloud with joy.”

8 “Lebanon’s trees and cedar rejoice over you: ‘Since you fell asleep, no one has come up to cut us down.’”

9 “Hades below was filled with bitterness to meet you. All the giants who ruled the earth rise together against you; they raise from their thrones all the kings of the nations.”

10 “They will all answer, ‘You too have been captured as we were and counted among us.’”

11 “Your glory and great celebration have descended to Hades. Decay is spread beneath you, and a worm is your covering.”

12 “How the morning star that rises at dawn has fallen from heaven! The one who sent orders to all nations has been crushed to the earth.”

13 You said in your heart,

“I will ascend to heaven. I will set my throne above heaven’s stars. I will sit on a lofty mountain, on the lofty mountains toward the north.”

14 “I will ascend above the clouds. I will be like the Most High.”

15 “But now you will descend to Hades, to the earth’s foundations.”

16 “Those who see you will stare and say, ‘Is this the man who troubled the earth and shook kings,’”

17 “‘who made the world desolate, destroyed its cities, and did not release his captives?’”

18 “All the nations’ kings rest with honor, each in his own house.”

19 “But you will be thrown onto the mountains like a despised corpse, among the many pierced by swords who descend to Hades. Like a bloodstained garment, you will not be clean,”

20 “You too will not be clean, because you destroyed my land and killed my people. You, evil offspring, will not endure forever.”

21 “Prepare your children to be killed for your father’s sins, so they cannot rise, inherit the earth, or fill it with cities.”

22 “‘I will rise against them,’ says the Lord of armies. ‘I will destroy their name, those who remain, and their descendants,’ says the Lord.”

23 “‘I will make Babylon’s region a desert where hedgehogs live. It will come to nothing, and I will turn it into a clay pit for destruction.’”

24 “This is what the Lord of armies says: ‘It will happen as I have said, and the matter will remain as I intended:’”

25 “I will destroy the Assyrians on my land and mountains. They will be trampled, their yoke removed, and their glory lifted from their shoulders.”

26 “This is the purpose the Lord has planned for the whole earth, and this is the hand raised against every nation.”

27 “Who can frustrate what the Holy God has planned? Who can turn back his raised hand?”

28 “This word came in the year King Ahaz died.”

29 “Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, because the yoke of the one who struck you has broken. Young vipers will come from the serpent’s offspring, and from them will come flying serpents.”

30 “Through him the poor will be fed and rest in peace, but he will destroy your offspring and those who remain by famine.”

31 “Wail, city gates! Let the cities and all the Philistines be troubled and cry, because smoke is coming from the north, and no one can survive.”

32 “What will the nations’ kings answer? ‘The Lord founded Zion, and through him the poor among his people will be rescued.’”