Isaiah 14:3–11

Fall of the King of Babylon

³It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, ⁴that you ^fwill take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:

“How the oppressor has ceased,

The ^ggolden ¹city ceased!

⁵The Lord has broken ^hthe staff of the wicked,

The scepter of the rulers;

⁶He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,

He who ruled the nations in anger,

Is persecuted and no one hinders.

⁷The whole earth is at rest and quiet;

They break forth into singing.

⁸ⁱIndeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,

And the cedars of Lebanon,

Saying, ‘Since you ²were cut down,

No woodsman has come up against us.’

⁹“Hell ^j3from beneath is excited about you,

To meet you at your coming;

It stirs up the dead for you,

All the chief ones of the earth;

It has raised up from their thrones

All the kings of the nations.

¹⁰They all shall ^kspeak and say to you:

‘Have you also become as weak as we?

Have you become like us?

¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,

And the sound of your stringed instruments;

The maggot is spread under you,

And worms cover you.’