Isaiah 14–16

The Restoration of Israel

14But Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob,

and he will again choose Israel

and set them on their land,

and the immigrant will join himself to them,

and they will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

²And the nations will take them

and bring them to their place,

and the house of Israel will take possession of them^a in the land of Yahweh

as slaves and female slaves.

And this will happen:

they will take their captors captive

and rule over their oppressors.

The Downfall of the King of Babylon

³And it shall happen on the day Yahweh gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and hard labor which you had to perform,^b

⁴that you will take this taunt against the king of Babylon,

and you will say:

“How the oppressor has ceased!

his insolence^c has ceased.

⁵Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of rulers,

⁶that struck the peoples in wrath, a blow without ceasing,

that ruled the nations in anger

with unrestrained persecution.^d

⁷All of the earth rests and is quiet;

they break forth into singing.

⁸Even the cypresses rejoice over you,

the cedars of Lebanon:

‘Since you were laid down,

no wood cutter comes up against us.’

⁹Sheol below is getting excited over you,

to meet you when you come;^e

it arouses the dead spirits for you,

all of the leaders of the earth.

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

¹⁰All of them will respond and say to you,

‘You yourself also were made weak like us!

You have become the same as us!’

¹¹Your pride is brought down to Sheol,

and the sound of your harps;

maggots^f are spread out beneath you like a bed,

and your covering is worms.^g

¹²How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of dawn!

You are cut down to the ground, conqueror of nations!

¹³And you yourself said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

I will raise up my throne above the stars of God;

and I will sit on the mountain of assembly

on the summit of Zaphon;^h

¹⁴I will ascend to the high places of the clouds,ⁱ

I will make myself like the Most High.’

¹⁵But you are brought down to Sheol,

to the depths of the pit.

¹⁶Those who see you will stare at you,

they will look closely at you:

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

who caused kingdoms to shake,

¹⁷who made the world like the desert

and destroyed its cities,

who would not let his prisoners go home?’

¹⁸All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory,

each one in his house.

¹⁹But as for you, you are thrown away from your grave,

like an abhorrent shoot,

clothed with the slain,

those pierced by the sword,

those who go down to the stones of the pit,

like a corpse that is trodden down.

²⁰You will not be united with them in burial

because you have destroyed your land,

you have killed your people.

The descendants^j of evildoers will not be mentioned for eternity!

²¹Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons

because of the sin of their ancestors.^k

Let them not rise and take possession of the earth

or fill up the face of the world with cities.”

²²“And I will rise up against them,”

declares^l Yahweh of hosts,

“and I will cut off name and a remnant from Babylon,

and offspring and posterity,”

declares^m Yahweh.

²³“And I will make her a possession of the hedgehog,

and pools of water,

and I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,”

declaresⁿ Yahweh of hosts.

Oracle of Judgment on Assyria

²⁴Yahweh of hosts has sworn, saying,

“Surely^o just as I have intended, so it shall be.

And just as I have planned, it shall stand:

²⁵to break Assyria in my land,

and I will trample him down on my mountains;

and he shall remove his yoke from them,

and he shall remove his burden from his^p shoulders.”^q

²⁶This is the plan that is planned concerning all of the earth;

and this is the hand that is stretched out over all of the nations.

²⁷For Yahweh of hosts has planned, and who will frustrate it?

And his hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

Oracle of Judgment on Philistia

²⁸In the year of the death of king Ahaz there was this oracle:

²⁹You must not rejoice, all you Philistines,

that the rod that struck you is broken,

for a viper will come forth from the root of the snake,

and its fruit will be a flying serpent.

³⁰And the firstborn of the poor will graze,

and the needy will lie down in security;

but I will cause your root to die in famine,

and it will kill your remnant.

³¹Wail, gate! Cry, city!

Melt,^r Philistia, all of you!

For smoke is coming from the north,

and there is no straggler in his ranks.

³²And what will one answer the messengers of the nation?

That Yahweh has founded Zion,

and the needy of his people will take refuge in it.

Oracle of Judgment on Moab

15An oracle of Moab:

Because Ar is devastated in a night, Moab is destroyed;

because Kir of Moab is devastated in a night, it is destroyed.

²It has gone up to the house,^a

and Dibon to the high places

for weeping over Nebo,

and Moab wails over Medeba.

Every head is bald,^b

every beard is shaved.

³They gird themselves with sackcloth in its streets;

on its roofs and public squares everyone wails,

going down in weeping.

⁴And Heshbon and Elealeh cry^c out,

their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;

therefore the armed ones of Moab cry out;

its soul quivers^d for him.

⁵My heart cries out for Moab;

its fugitives flee up to Zoar,

to Eglath-shelishiyah.

For at the ascent of Luhith it goes up it with weeping;

for on the road of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.

⁶For the waters of Nimrim are wastelands;

for the grass has withered,

the vegetation has vanished,

there is no greenness.

⁷Therefore they carry the abundance it has made

and their store of goods over the river of the poplars.

⁸For a cry for help has encircled the territory of Moab,

her wailing is heard as far as Eglaim,

and her wailing as far as Beer Elim.

⁹For the waters of Dimon^e are full of blood;

but I will place added things upon Dimon:

a lion for the survivors^f of Moab

and for the remnant of the land.

16Send a ram^a to the ruler of the land,

from Sela across the desert to the mountain of daughter Zion.^b

²And this shall be:

like a bird fleeing from a thrust away nest

shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of Arnon.

³“Bring counsel,

make a decision;

make your shade like the night

in the middle of noonday.

Hide the outcasts;

you must not betray the fugitive.

⁴Let my outcasts of Moab dwell as aliens among you;

be a hiding place for them from the presence of the destroyer.”

When the oppressor is no more, destruction has stopped,

the one who tramples has^c disappeared from the land,

⁵then a throne shall be established in steadfast love,

and one shall sit on it in faithfulness, in the tent of David,

judging and seeking justice

and zealous for righteousness.

⁶We have heard of the pride of Moab—exceedingly proud—

of his arrogance, pride, and insolence; his boasting is not true.^d

⁷Therefore Moab wails;

all of it wails for Moab,

for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth you moan, utterly devastated.^e

⁸For Heshbon withers the fields, the vine of Sibmah;

rulers of nations have broken down her tendrils,

they reached up to Jazer,

they wandered to the desert;

her shoots spread abroad,

they crossed over the sea.

⁹Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah.

I drench you with my tears,^f Heshbon and Elealeh,

for a jubilant shout has fallen over your summer fruit and harvest.

¹⁰And joy and gladness are^g taken away from the fruitful land,

and in the vineyards no one exults,

no one shouts for joy;

no treader treads wine in the presses;

I have put to an end to the jubilant shout.

¹¹Therefore my heart moans^h like a harp for Moab

and my inner parts for Kir-heres.

¹²And this shall happen:

when Moab appears, when it is weary upon the high place

and it comes to its sanctuary to pray, it will not prevail.

¹³This was the word that Yahweh spoke to Moab in the past.^{i 14}But now Yahweh speaks, saying, “In three years, like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will become contemptible, with all of the great multitude, and the remnant will be a few, small, not strong.