Isaiah 14:4–21

⁴you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

“How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of rulers,

⁶that smote the peoples in wrath

with unceasing blows,

that ruled the nations in anger

with unrelenting persecution.

⁷The whole earth is at rest and quiet;

they break forth into singing.

⁸The cypresses rejoice at you,

the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

‘Since you were laid low,

no hewer comes up against us.’

⁹Sheol beneath is stirred up

to meet you when you come,

it rouses the shades to greet you,

all who were leaders of the earth;

it raises from their thrones

all who were kings of the nations.

¹⁰All of them will speak

and say to you:

‘You too have become as weak as we!

You have become like us!’

¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,

the sound of your harps;

maggots are the bed beneath you,

and worms are your covering.

¹²“How you are fallen from heaven,

O Day Star, son of Dawn!

How you are cut down to the ground,

you who laid the nations low!

¹³You said in your heart,

‘I will ascend to heaven;

above the stars of God

I will set my throne on high;

I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north;

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

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,

and ponder over you:

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

who shook kingdoms,

¹⁷who made the world like a desert

and overthrew its cities,

who did not let his prisoners go home?’

¹⁸All the kings of the nations lie in glory,

each in his own tomb;

¹⁹but you are cast out, away from your sepulchre,

like a loathed untimely birth,^z

clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,

who go down to the stones of the Pit,

like a dead body trodden under foot.

²⁰You will not be joined with them in burial,

because you have destroyed your land,

you have slain your people.

“May the descendants of evildoers

nevermore be named!

²¹Prepare slaughter for his sons

because of the guilt of their fathers,

lest they rise and possess the earth,

and fill the face of the world with cities.”