Isaiah 14:4–21

⁴you will sing this song of contempt about the king of Babylon^s and say:

How the oppressor has quieted down,

and how the raging^B has become quiet!

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of the rulers.

⁶It struck the peoples in anger

with unceasing blows.

It subdued the nations in rage

with relentless persecution.

⁷The whole earth is calm and at rest;

people shout with a ringing cry.

⁸Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon

rejoice over you:^t

“Since you have been laid low,

no lumberjack has come against us.”

⁹Sheol below is eager to greet your coming,

stirring up the spirits of the departed for you—

all the rulers^A of the earth—

making all the kings of the nations

rise from their thrones.

¹⁰They all respond to you, saying,

“You too have become as weak as we are;

you have become like us!

¹¹Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol,

along with the music of your harps.

Maggots are spread out under you,

and worms cover you.”

¹²Shining morning star,^Ba

how you have fallen from the heavens!^b

You destroyer of nations,

you have been cut down to the ground.

¹³You said to yourself,

“I will ascend to the heavens;^c

I will set up my throne

above the stars of God.^d

I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly,

in the remotest parts of the North.^Ce

¹⁴I will ascend above the highest clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”

¹⁵But you will be brought down to Sheol

into the deepest regions of the Pit.^f

¹⁶Those who see you will stare at you;

they will look closely at you:

“Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble,

who shook the kingdoms,

¹⁷who turned the world into a wilderness,^g

who destroyed its cities

and would not release the prisoners to return home?”

¹⁸All the kings of the nations

lie in splendor, each in his own tomb.

¹⁹But you are thrown out without a grave,

like a worthless branch,

covered by those slain with the sword

and dumped into a rocky pit like a trampled corpse.

²⁰You will not join them in burial,

because you destroyed your land

and slaughtered your own people.

The offspring of evildoers

will never be mentioned again.^h

²¹Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons,

because of the iniquityⁱ of their ancestors.

They will never rise up to possess a land

or fill the surface of the earth with cities.