Chapter 14

Israel’s Taunt

1 When the Lord will ahave compassion on Jacob and again bchoose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then cstrangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

2 The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the ahouse of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the Lord bas male servants and female servants; and 1they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

3 And it will be in the day when the Lord gives you arest from your pain and turmoil and harsh service in which you have been enslaved,

4 that you will atake up this 1taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

“How bthe oppressor has ceased,

And how 2fury has ceased!

5 “The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

The scepter of rulers

6 aWhich used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,

Which 1subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

7 “The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;

They abreak forth into shouts of joy.

8 “Even the acypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.’

9 “aSheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come;

It arouses for you the 1spirits of the dead, all the 2leaders of the earth;

It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

10 “aThey will all respond and say to you,

‘Even you have been made weak as we,

You have become like us.

11 ‘Your apomp and the music of your harps

Have been brought down to Sheol;

Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you

And worms are your covering.’

12 “How you have afallen from heaven,

O 1bstar of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who have weakened the nations!

13 “But you said in your heart,

‘I will aascend to heaven;

I will braise my throne above the stars of God,

And I will sit on the mount of assembly

In the recesses of the north.

14 ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

aI will make myself like the Most High.’

15 “Nevertheless you awill be thrust down to Sheol,

To the recesses of the pit.

16 “Those who see you will gaze at you,

They will 1ponder over you, saying,

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who shook kingdoms,

17 Who made the world like a awilderness

And overthrew its cities,

Who bdid not 1allow his prisoners to go home?’

18 “All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

Each in his own 1tomb.

19 “But you have been acast out of your tomb

Like 1a rejected branch,

2Clothed with the slain who are pierced with a sword,

Who go down to the stones of the bpit

Like a ctrampled corpse.

20 “You will not be united with them in burial,

Because you have ruined your country,

You have slain your people.

May the aoffspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever.

21 “Prepare for his sons a place of slaughter

Because of the ainiquity of their fathers.

They must not arise and take possession of the earth

And fill the face of the world with cities.”

22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon aname and survivors, boffspring and posterity,” declares the Lord.

23 “I will also make it a possession for the ahedgehog and swamps of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of bdestruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.

Judgment on Assyria

24 The Lord of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, ajust as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand,

25 to abreak Assyria in My land, and I will trample him on My mountains. Then his byoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder.

26 “This is the aplan 1devised against the whole earth; and this is the bhand that is stretched out against all the nations.

27 “For athe Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”

28 In the ayear that King Ahaz died this 1boracle came:

Judgment on Philistia

29 “Do not rejoice, O aPhilistia, all of you,

Because the rod that bstruck you is broken;

For from the serpent’s root a cviper will come out,

And its fruit will be a dflying serpent.

30 “1Those who are most ahelpless will eat,

And the needy will lie down in security;

I will 2destroy your root with bfamine,

And it will kill off your survivors.

31 “Wail, O agate; cry, O city;

1Melt away, O bPhilistia, all of you;

For smoke comes from the cnorth,

And dthere is no straggler in his ranks.

32 “How then will one answer the amessengers of the nation?

That bthe Lord has founded Zion,

And cthe afflicted of His people will seek refuge in it.”