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Israel's Taunt against Babylon

¹ When the LORD ^(C1)has compassion on Jacob and again ^(C2)chooses Israel, and settles them on their own land, then ^(C3)strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.² The peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the ^(C1)house of Israel will make them their own possession in the land of the LORD ^(C2)as male and female servants; and ^(F1)they will take their captors captive and will rule over their oppressors.

³ And it will be on the day when the LORD gives you ^(C1)rest from your hardship, your turmoil, and from the harsh service in which you have been enslaved,⁴ that you will ^(C1)take up this ^(F1)taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,

"How ^(C2)the oppressor has ceased,
And how the ^(F2)onslaught has ceased!

⁵ "The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of rulers,

^6 (C1)Which used to strike the peoples in fury with unceasing strokes,
Which ^(F1)subdued the nations in anger with unrestrained persecution.

⁷ "The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
They ^(C1)break forth into shouts of joy.

⁸ "Even the ^(C1)juniper trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
'Since you have been laid low, no tree cutter comes up against us.'

⁹ "^(C1)Sheol below is excited about you, to meet you when you come;
It stirs the ^(F1)spirits of the dead for you, all the ^(F2)leaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

¹⁰ "^(C1)They will all respond and say to you,
'Even you have become weak as we,
You have become like us.

¹¹ 'Your ^(C1)pride and the music of your harps
Have been brought down to Sheol;
Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you
And worms are your covering.'

¹² "How you have ^(C1)fallen from heaven,
You ^(F1)(C2)star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who defeated the nations!

¹³ "But you said in your heart,
'I will ^(C1)ascend to heaven;
I will ^(C2)raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.

¹⁴ 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
^(C1)I will make myself like the Most High.'

¹⁵ "Nevertheless you ^(C1)will be brought down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.

¹⁶ "Those who see you will stare at you,
They will ^(F1)closely examine you, saying,
'Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,

¹⁷ Who made the world like a ^(C1)wilderness
And overthrew its cities,
Who ^(C2)did not ^(F1)allow his prisoners to go home?'

¹⁸ "All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
Each in his own ^(F1)tomb.

¹⁹ "But you have been ^(C1)hurled out of your tomb
Like ^(F1)a rejected branch,
^(F2)Clothed with those killed who have been pierced with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the ^(C2)pit
Like a ^(C3)trampled corpse.

²⁰ "You will not be united with them in burial,
Because you have ruined your country,
You have killed your people.
May the ^(C1)descendants of evildoers never be mentioned.

²¹ "Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons
Because of the ^(C1)wrongdoing of their fathers.
They must not arise and take possession of the earth,
And fill the surface of the world with cities."

Judgment on Assyria

Judgment on Philistia

²⁸ In the ^(C1)year that King Ahaz died, this ^(C2)pronouncement came:

²⁹ "Do not rejoice, ^(C1)Philistia, all of you,
Because the rod that ^(C2)struck you is broken;
For from the serpent's root a ^(C3)viper will come out,
And its fruit will be a ^(C4)winged serpent.

³⁰ "^(F1)Those who are most ^(C1)helpless will eat,
And the poor will lie down in security;
I will kill your root with ^(C2)famine,
And it will kill your survivors.

³¹ "Wail, you ^(C1)gate; cry, you city;
^(F1)Melt away, ^(C2)Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes from the ^(C3)north,
And ^(C4)there is no straggler in his ranks.

³² "What answer will one give the ^(C1)messengers of the nation?
That ^(C2)the LORD has founded Zion,
And ^(C3)the poor of His people will take refuge in it."