Read the Bible

¹ For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in rest in their own land; and the stranger shall be united to them, and they shall be joined to the house of Jacob.

² And the peoples shall take them and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and handmaids; and they shall take them captive whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors.

³ And it shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy trouble and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

⁴ that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased,—the exactress of gold ceased!

⁵ Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers.

⁶ He that smote the peoples in wrath with a relentless stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted unsparingly.

⁷ The whole earth is at rest, is quiet: they break forth into singing.

⁸ Even the cypresses rejoice at thee, the cedars of Lebanon, [saying,] Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

⁹ Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet [thee] at thy coming, stirring up the dead for thee, all the he-goats of the earth; making to rise from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

¹⁰ All of them shall answer and say unto thee, Art thou also become powerless as we; art thou become like unto us!

¹¹ —Thy pomp is brought down to Sheol, the noise of thy lyres: the maggot is spread under thee, and worms cover thee.

¹² How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! Thou art cut down to the ground, that didst prostrate the nations!

¹³ And thou that didst say in thy heart, I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit upon the mount of assembly, in the recesses of the north;

¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High:

¹⁵ none the less art thou brought down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.

¹⁶ They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee; they shall consider thee, [saying,] Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that shook kingdoms;

¹⁷ [that] made the world as a wilderness, and overthrew the cities thereof; [that] dismissed not his prisoners homewards?

¹⁸ —All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house;

¹⁹ but thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, covered with the slain—those thrust through with the sword, that go down to the stones of the pit: like a carcase trodden under foot.

²⁰ Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial; for thou hast destroyed thy land, hast slain thy people. Of the seed of evildoers no mention shall be made for ever.

²¹ Prepare ye slaughter for his children, because of the iniquity of their fathers; that they may not rise up and possess the earth, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

²² For I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and scion and descendant, saith Jehovah.

²³ And I will make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith Jehovah of hosts.

²⁴ Jehovah of hosts hath sworn saying, Assuredly as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, it shall stand:

²⁵ to break the Assyrian in my land; and upon my mountains will I tread him under foot; and his yoke shall depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

²⁶ This is the counsel which is purposed concerning the whole earth; and this is the hand which is stretched out upon all the nations.

²⁷ For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall frustrate [it]? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

²⁸ In the year of the death of king Ahaz was this burden:

²⁹ Rejoice not thou, Philistia, all of thee, because the rod that smote thee is broken; for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a viper, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

³⁰ And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; but I will kill thy root with famine, and thy remnant shall be slain.

³¹ Howl, O gate! cry, O city! thou, Philistia, art wholly dissolved; for there cometh from the north a smoke, and none remaineth apart in his gatherings [of troops].

³² And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and the afflicted of his people find refuge in it.