Isaiah 14:4–21

^4*When he does this, they are to mock the king of Babylonia and say:

“The cruel king has fallen! He will never oppress anyone again! ^5*The Lord has ended the power of the evil rulers ^6*who angrily oppressed the peoples and never stopped persecuting the nations they had conquered. ^7*Now at last the whole world enjoys rest and peace, and everyone sings for joy. ^8*The cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon rejoice over the fallen king, because there is no one to cut them down, now that he is gone!

^9*“The world of the dead is getting ready to welcome the king of Babylonia. The ghosts of those who were powerful on earth are stirring about. The ghosts of kings are rising from their thrones. ^10*They all call out to him, ‘Now you are as weak as we are! You are one of us! ^11*You used to be honoured with the music of harps, but now here you are in the world of the dead. You lie on a bed of maggots and are covered with a blanket of worms.’

^12*“King of Babylonia, bright morning star, you have fallen from heaven! In the past you conquered nations, but now you have been thrown to the ground. ^13*You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. You thought you would sit like a king on that mountain in the north where the gods assemble. ^14*You said you would climb to the tops of the clouds and be like the Almighty. ^15*But instead, you have been brought down to the deepest part of the world of the dead.

^16*“The dead will stare and gape at you. They will ask, ‘Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble? ^17*Is this the man who destroyed cities and turned the world into a desert? Is this the man who never freed his prisoners or let them go home?’ ^18*All the kings of the earth lie in their magnificent tombs, ^19*but you have no tomb, and your corpse is thrown out to rot. It is covered by the bodies of soldiers killed in battle, thrown with them into a rocky pit, and trampled down. ^20*Because you ruined your country and killed your own people, you will not be buried like other kings. None of your evil family will survive. ^21*Let the slaughter begin! The sons of this king will die because of their ancestors’ sins. None of them will ever rule the earth or cover it with cities.”