The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Isaiah 14
1 For Yahweh will have compassion on
Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set
them in their own land. The foreigner will
join himself with them, and they will unite
with the house of Jacob.
2 The peoples will take them, and bring
them to their place. The house of Israel
will possess them in Yahweh’s land for servants and for handmaids. They willtake as
captives those whose captives they were;
and they shall rule over their oppressors.
3 It will happen in the day that Yahweh
will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in
which you were made to serve,
4 that you will take up this parable
against the king of Babylon, and say, “How
the oppressor has ceased! The golden city
has ceased!”
5 Yahweh has broken the staff of the
wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
6 who struck the peoples in wrath with
a continual stroke, who ruled the nations
in anger, with a persecution that no one
restrained.
7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet.
They break out in song.
8 Yes, the cypress trees rejoice with you,
with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since
you are humbled, no lumberjack has come
up against us.”
9 Sheol† from beneath has moved for you
to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the
departed spirits for you, even all the rulers
of the earth. It has raised up from their
thrones all the kings of the nations.
10 They all will answer and ask you,
“Have you also become as weak as we are?
Have you become like us?”
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,‡
with the sound of your stringed instruments.
Maggots are spread out under you,
and worms cover you.
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
shining one, son of the dawn! How you
are cut down to the ground, who laid the
nations low!
13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend
into heaven! I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain
of assembly, in the far north!
14 I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds! I will make myself like the Most
High!”
15 Yet you shall be brought down to
Sheol,§ to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you.
They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the
man who made the earth to tremble, who
shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a wilderness,
and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release
his prisoners to their home?”
18 All the kings of the nations sleep in
glory, everyone in his own house.
19 But you are cast away from your tomb
like an abominable branch, clothed with
the slain who are thrust through with the
sword, who go down to the stones of the
pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.
20 You will not join them in burial, because you have
destroyed your land. You have killed your people.
The offspring of evildoers will not be named forever.
21 Prepare for slaughter of his children
because of the iniquity of their fathers,
that they not rise up and possess the earth,
and fill the surface of the world with cities.
22 “I will rise up against them,” says Yahweh of Armies,
“and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s
son,” says Yahweh.
23 “I will also make it a possession for
the porcupine, and pools of water. I will
sweep it with the broom of destruction,”
says Yahweh of Armies.
24 Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying,
“Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and
as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 that I will break the Assyrian in my
land, and tread him under foot on my
mountains. Then his yoke will leave them,
and his burden leave their shoulders.
26 This is the plan that is determined for
the whole earth. This is the hand that is
stretched out over all the nations.
27 For Yahweh of Armies has planned,
and who can stop it? His hand is stretched
out, and who can turn it back?”
28 This burden was in the year that King
Ahaz died.
29 Don’t rejoice, O Philistia, all of you,
because the rod that struck you is broken;
for out of the serpent’s root an adder will
emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying
serpent.
30 The firstborn of the poor will eat, and
the needy will lie down in safety; and I
will kill your root with famine, and your
remnant will be killed.
31 Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted
away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes
out ofthenorth, andthere isno straggler in
his ranks.
32 What willthey answer the messengers
of the nation? That Yahweh has founded
Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people
will take refuge.