Isaiah 14–16

Chapter 14

Israel’s Taunt

¹When 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.

²The 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.

³And 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,

⁴that 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

^6aWhich 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,

¹⁷Who 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

²⁴The 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,

²⁵to ^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?”

²⁸In 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.”

Chapter 15

Judgment on Moab

¹The ¹oracle concerning ^aMoab.

Surely in a night ^bAr of Moab is devastated and ruined;

Surely in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.

²They have gone up to the ¹temple and to ^aDibon, even to the high places to weep.

Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba;

Everyone’s head is ^bbald and every beard is cut off.

³In their streets they have girded themselves with ^asackcloth;

^bOn their housetops and in their squares

Everyone is wailing, ^1cdissolved in tears.

^4aHeshbon and Elealeh also cry out,

Their voice is heard all the way to Jahaz;

Therefore the ¹armed men of Moab cry aloud;

His soul trembles within him.

⁵My heart cries out for Moab;

His fugitives are as far as ^aZoar and Eglath-shelishiyah,

For they go up the ^bascent of Luhith weeping;

Surely on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress ^cover their ruin.

⁶For the ^awaters of Nimrim are ¹desolate.

Surely the grass is withered, the tender grass ²died out,

There is ^bno green thing.

⁷Therefore the ^aabundance which they have acquired and stored up

They carry off over the brook of ¹Arabim.

⁸For the cry of distress has gone around the territory of Moab,

Its wail goes as far as Eglaim and its wailing even to Beer-elim.

⁹For the waters of Dimon are full of ¹blood;

Surely I will bring added woes upon Dimon,

A ^alion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.

Chapter 16

Prophecy of Moab’s Devastation

^1aSend the tribute lamb to the ruler of the land,

From ^1bSela by way of the wilderness to the ^cmountain of the daughter of Zion.

²Then, like ^1afleeing birds or scattered ²nestlings,

The daughters of ^bMoab will be at the fords of the ^cArnon.

³“¹Give us advice, make a decision;

²Cast your ^ashadow like night ³at high noon;

^bHide the outcasts, do not betray the fugitive.

⁴“Let the ¹outcasts of Moab stay with you;

Be a hiding place to them from the destroyer.”

For the extortioner has come to an end, destruction has ceased,

^aOppressors have completely disappeared from the land.

⁵A ^athrone will even be established in lovingkindness,

And a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of ^bDavid;

Moreover, he will seek justice

And be prompt in righteousness.

^6aWe have heard of the pride of Moab, an excessive pride;

Even of his arrogance, pride, and fury;

^bHis idle boasts are ¹false.

⁷Therefore Moab will wail; everyone of Moab will wail.

You will moan for the ^araisin cakes of ^bKir-hareseth

As those who are utterly stricken.

⁸For the fields of ^aHeshbon have ¹withered, the vines of ^bSibmah as well;

The lords of the nations have trampled down its choice clusters

Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered to the deserts;

^cIts tendrils spread themselves out and passed over the sea.

⁹Therefore I will ^aweep bitterly for Jazer, for the vine of Sibmah;

I will drench you with my tears, O ^bHeshbon and Elealeh;

For the shouting over your ^csummer fruits and your harvest has fallen away.

^10aGladness and joy are taken away from the fruitful field;

In the ^bvineyards also there will be no cries of joy or jubilant shouting,

No ^ctreader treads out wine in the presses,

For I have made the shouting to cease.

¹¹Therefore my ^1aheart intones like a harp for Moab

And my ²inward feelings for Kir-hareseth.

¹²So it will come about when Moab ^apresents himself,

When he ^bwearies himself upon his ^chigh place

And comes to his sanctuary to pray,

That he will not prevail.

¹³This is the word which the Lord spoke earlier concerning Moab.

¹⁴But now the Lord speaks, saying, “Within three years, as ^1aa hired man would count them, the glory of ^bMoab will be degraded along with all his great population, and his remnant will be very small and ²impotent.”