Isaiah 14:9–32

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.

²²“I will rise up against them”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies—“and I will cut off from Babylon her reputation, remnant, offspring, and posterity”—this is the Lord’s declaration. ²³“I will make her a swampland and a region for herons,^A and I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction.”

This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.

ASSYRIA WILL BE DESTROYED

²⁴The Lord of Armies has sworn:

As I have purposed, so it will be;

as I have planned it, so it will happen.^j

²⁵I will break Assyria^k in my land;

I will tread him down on my mountain.

Then his yoke will be taken from them,

and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.

²⁶This is the plan^l prepared

for the whole earth,

and this is the hand stretched out

against all the nations.

²⁷The Lord of Armies himself has planned it;

therefore, who can stand in its way?

It is his hand that is outstretched,

so who can turn it back?

A PRONOUNCEMENT AGAINST PHILISTIA

²⁸In the year that King Ahaz died,^m this pronouncement came:ⁿ

²⁹Don’t rejoice, all of you in Philistia,

because the rod of the one who struck you^o is broken.

For a viper will come from the root^B of a snake,

and from its egg comes a flying serpent.^p

³⁰Then the firstborn^q of the poor will be well fed,

and the impoverished will lie down in safety,

but I will kill your root with hunger,

and your remnant will be slain.

³¹Wail, you gates!^r Cry out, city!

Tremble with fear,^a all Philistia!

For a cloud of dust is coming from the north,^b

and there is no one missing from the invader’s ranks.

³²What answer will be given to the messengers from that nation?

The Lord has founded Zion,^c

and his oppressed people find refuge in her.