Isaiah 14:9–32

⁹The place of the dead is excited

to meet you when you come.

It wakes the spirits of the dead,

the leaders of the world.

It makes kings of all nations

stand up from their thrones to greet you.

¹⁰All these leaders will make fun of you

and will say,

“Now you are weak, as we are.

Now you are just like us.”

¹¹Your pride has been sent down to the place of the dead.

The music from your harps goes with it.

Flies are spread out like your bed beneath you,

and worms cover your body like a blanket.

¹²King of Babylon, morning star, you have fallen from heaven,

even though you were as bright as the rising sun!

In the past all the nations on earth bowed down before you,

but now you have been cut down.

¹³You told yourself,

“I will go up to heaven.

I will put my throne

above God’s stars.

I will sit on the mountain of the gods,

on the slopes of the sacred mountain.

¹⁴I will go up above the tops of the clouds.

I will be like God Most High.”

¹⁵But you were brought down to the grave,

to the deep places where the dead are.

¹⁶Those who see you stare at you.

They think about what has happened to you

and say, “Is this the same man who caused great fear on earth,

who shook the kingdoms,

¹⁷who turned the world into a desert,

who destroyed its cities,

who captured people in war

and would not let them go home?”

¹⁸Every king of the earth has been buried with honor,

each in his own grave.

¹⁹But you are thrown out of your grave,

like an unwanted branch.

You are covered by bodies

that died in battle,

by bodies to be buried in a rocky pit.

You are like a dead body other soldiers walk on.

²⁰You will not be buried with those bodies,

because you ruined your own country

and killed your own people.

The children of evil people

will never be mentioned again.

²¹Prepare to kill his children,

because their father is guilty.

They will never again take control of the earth;

they will never again fill the world with their cities.

²²The Lord All-Powerful says this:

“I will fight against those people;

I will destroy Babylon and its people,

its children and their descendants,” says the Lord.

²³“I will make Babylon fit only for owls

and for swamps.

I will sweep Babylon as with a broom of destruction,”

says the Lord All-Powerful.

God Will Punish Assyria

²⁴The Lord All-Powerful has made this promise:

“These things will happen exactly as I planned them;

they will happen exactly as I set them up.

²⁵I will destroy the king of Assyria in my country;

I will trample him on my mountains.

He placed a heavy load on my people,

but that weight will be removed.

²⁶“This is what I plan to do for all the earth.

And this is the hand that I have raised over all nations.”

²⁷When the Lord All-Powerful makes a plan,

no one can stop it.

When the Lord raises his hand to punish people,

no one can stop it.

God’s Message to Philistia

²⁸This message was given in the year that King Ahaz died:

²⁹Country of Philistia, don’t be happy

that the king who struck you is now dead.

He is like a snake that will give birth to another dangerous snake.

The new king will be like a quick, dangerous snake to bite you.

³⁰Even the poorest of my people will be able to eat safely,

and people in need will be able to lie down in safety.

But I will kill your family with hunger,

and all your people who are left will die.

³¹People near the city gates, cry out!

Philistines, be frightened,

because a cloud of dust comes from the north.

It is an army, full of men ready to fight.

³²What shall we tell the messengers from Philistia?

Say that the Lord has made Jerusalem strong

and that his poor people will go there for safety.