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the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel. He will settle them in their own land; and foreigners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 Nations will take them and bring them to their own homeland. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the Lord’s land. They will make captives of their captors and will rule over their oppressors.
3 On the day when the Lord gives you rest from your pain, torment, and the hard labour with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon and say:
“How the oppressor has come to an end!
How his fury has ceased!
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the sceptre of rulers,
6 that in wrath struck down the peoples
with unceasing blows;
he who ruled the nations in anger
with relentless persecution.
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 Even the cypress trees exalt over you,
and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you have been laid low,
no woodcutter has come to cut us down’.
9 “Sheol below is stirred up to greet you,
to meet you when you come;
it stirs up the dead for you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it makes all who were kings of the nations
rise from their thrones.
10 They will all speak
and say to you:
‘You have also become as weak as we are;
you have become like us!
11 Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol,
along with the music of your harps.
Maggots are the bed beneath you,
and worms are your covering’.”
12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the dawn!
How you have been cut down to the ground,
you destroyer of nations!
13 You said in your heart:
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Zaphon;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the Most High’.
15 “But you will be brought down to Sheol,
to the deepest regions of the Pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you;
they will ponder over you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook the kingdoms,
17 who turned the world into a wilderness,
who overthrew its cities,
and would not release his prisoners to return home?’
18 “All of the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb.
19 But you are cast out without a tomb,
like a rejected branch,
clothed with those slain by the sword,
who descend down to the stones of the Pit.
Like a corpse trampled underfoot,
20you will not be joined with them in burial,
for you have destroyed your own land,
and slaughtered your own people.
The offspring of evildoers
will never be mentioned again.
21 “Prepare a place to slaughter his sons
for the iniquity of their forefathers.
Let them never rise up and possess the land,
and cover the earth with their cities.
22 “I will rise up against them,”
declares the Lord of Hosts.
“I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant,
offspring and posterity,”
says the Lord.
23 “I will make it a possession for wild animals,
and marshes of muddy water;
I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,”
declares the Lord of Hosts.
24 The Lord of Hosts has sworn:
“As I have planned, so will it be;
as I have purposed, so will it happen.
25 I will break Assyria in My land;
on My mountains I will trample him underfoot.
Then his yoke will be removed from My people,
and his burden taken from off their shoulders.
26 “This is the plan that is prepared for the whole earth;
this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27 For the Lord of Hosts has purposed,
and who can annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?”
28 This is the oracle that came in the year that King Ahaz died:
29 “Do not rejoice, all of you in Philistia,
because the rod that struck you is broken.
For a viper will come from out of the root of the snake,
and from its fruit a flying fiery serpent.
30 The firstborn of the poor will be well fed,
and the needy will lie down in safety;
but I will kill your root with famine;
and your remnant will be slain.
31 Wail, O gate! Cry O city!
Melt away, O Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes from out of the north,
and there is not a straggler in its ranks.”
32 What answer will be given to the messengers of the nation?
“The Lord has founded Zion,
and the needy among His people find refuge in her.”