Isaiah

14 For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob And will yet choose Israel, And will give them rest upon their own soil,—And the sojourner shall join himself unto them, And they shall attach themselves unto the house of Jacob;

2 And peoples shall take them and bring them into their own place, And the house of Israel shall possess themselves of them upon the soil of Yahweh for servants and for handmaids,—Thus shall they be taking captive their captors, And shall tread down their oppressors.

3 And it shall come to pass in the day when Yahweh shall give thee rest from thy toil and from thy disquiet,—and from the hard service which had been laid upon thee

4 that thou shalt take up this taunt over the king of Babylon and shalt say:—How hath ceased the oppressor! Ceased the exactress!

5 Broke hath Yahweh the staff of the lawless,—The sceptre of despots;

6 Smiting peoples in passion With stroke unremitting,—Trampling in anger on nations, Persecution unhindered.

7 Quiet at rest the whole earth,—Men have burst into shouting!

8 Yea the pine-trees make mirth at thee, Cedars of Lebanon! Since thou wast laid low No feller hath come up against us!

9 Hades beneath is excited about thee To meet thine arrival,—Rousing up for thee Shades, All the he-goats of earth! Maketh rise from their thrones, All the kings of the nations.

10 All of them answer, and say to thee,—Thou too made strengthless as we! Unto us art thou like!

11 Brought down to Hades thy pride, The hum of thy harps, Beneath thee is spread out corruption, And thy coverlet—worms!

12 How hast thou fallen from heaven, O Shining One—Son of the Dawn! Hewn down to the earth, O crusher of nations!

13 Yet thou didst say in thy heart—The heavens will I ascend, Above the stars of God will I lift up my throne,—That I may sit in the Mount of Assembly, In the Recesses of the North:

14 I will mount on the hills of the clouds, I will match the Most High!

15 Howbeit to Hades shalt thou be brought down,—To the Recesses of the Pit!

16 They who see thee upon thee will gaze, Upon thee will thoughtfully muse,—Is this the man who startled the earth? Who terrified kingdoms?

17 Who made the world like a desert? And its cities brake down? Its prisoners he loosed not, Each one to his home?

18 All the kings of the nations—they all are lying in state, Each one in his crypt;

19 But thou art flung out from thy grave Like a scion detested, Beshrouded with slain, the pierced of the sword, Like a carcase trod underfoot:

20 As for them who go down to the stones of the Pit Thou shalt not be united with them in burial; For thy land thou didst ruin, Thy people didst slay,—Unnamed to times age-abiding Be the seed of the wicked!

21 Prepare—for his sons—shambles For the iniquity of their fathers,—They shall not rise nor possess the earth, Nor fill the face of the world with cities.

22 I will rise then against them, Declareth Yahweh of hosts,—And will cut off from Babylon Record and remnant And scion and seed, Declareth Yahweh.

23 And will make her a possession for the bittern And marshes of water,—And will sweep it with the besom of destruction, Declareth Yahweh of hosts.

24 Yahweh of hosts hath sworn saying,—Surely as I intended so hath it come to pass, And as I purposed the same shall stand:—

25 That I will break in pieces the Assyrian in my land, Yea upon my mountains will I tread him underfoot,—So shall be removed from off them his yoke, And his burden from off their shoulder shall be removed.

26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon all the earth,—And this the hand outstretched over all the nations;

27 For Yahweh of hosts hath purposed,—And who shall frustrate? And his is the hand outstretched, And who shall turn it back?

28 In the year that King Ahaz died came this oracle:—

29 Do not rejoice Philistia any of thee, In that the rod of him that smote thee is broken,—For out of the root of the serpent shall come forth a viper, And his fruit be a fiery dragon that flieth.

30 Then shall feed the firstborn of the poor, And the needy in confidence lie down,—And I will kill with famine thy root, And thy residue shall be slain.

31 Howl—O gate, Make outcry—O city, Dispersed art thou Philistia all of thee,—For out of the north a smoke cometh in, With no straggler in his ranks.

32 What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Yahweh hath founded Zion, And in her shall seek refuge the oppressed of his people.