1The LORD will have mercy on Jacob. He will choose Israel again, and settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them, and they will hold fast to the house of Jacob.
2The nations will take them and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in the land of the LORD as servants and maids. They will take their captors captive, and they will rule over those who oppressed them.
3On the day when the LORD gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard slavery you were made to serve,
4you will take up this saying against the king of Babylon: "How the oppressor has come to an end! How the golden city has come to an end!"
5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
6He struck the peoples in anger with blow after blow. He ruled the nations in fury. Now he is hunted down, and no one holds back.
7The whole earth is at rest and quiet. The people burst into singing.
8Even the fir trees are glad because of you, and the cedars of Lebanon. They say, 'Since you were laid low, no woodcutter has come up against us.'
9Hell below is stirred up to meet you when you come. It wakes the dead for you, all the leaders of the earth. It raises from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10They will all speak and say to you, 'Have you also become weak as we are? Have you become like us?'
11Your splendour is brought down to the grave, and the sound of your harps. Maggots are spread out beneath you, and worms cover you.
12How you have fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
13For you said in your heart, 'I will go up into heaven. I will lift my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the assembly, in the far parts of the north.
14I will go up above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.'
15Yet you will be brought down to hell, to the far parts of the pit.
16Those who see you will stare hard at you and think about you, saying, 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms;
17who made the world a desert and destroyed its cities, who never opened the house of his prisoners so they could go home?'
18All the kings of the nations, every one of them, lie in glory, each in his own house.
19But you are thrown out of your grave like a branch that no one wants. You are covered with the bodies of the slain, pierced through with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit. You are like a corpse trampled under foot.
20You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land and killed your people. The children of evildoers will never be famous.
21"Prepare a slaughter for his sons because of the sin of their fathers. Do not let them rise and possess the land, or fill the face of the world with cities."
22"For I will rise up against them," says the LORD of hosts. "I will cut off from Babylon her name and her survivors, her son and her grandson," says the LORD.
23"I will also make it a place for the bittern, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says the LORD of hosts.
24The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will happen. As I have purposed, so it will stand:"
25"I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains I will trample him under foot. Then his yoke will be taken off them, and his load will be taken off their shoulders."
26This is the plan that is planned for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27For the LORD of hosts has planned it, and who can cancel it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
28In the year that king Ahaz died, this message came.
29Do not be glad, all you of Palestina, because the rod that struck you is broken. For out of the serpent's root will come a poisonous snake, and its fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.
30The firstborn of the poor will have food, and the needy will lie down in safety. But I will kill your root with famine, and it will slay those of you who are left.
31Howl, you gate. Cry out, you city. All of you of Palestina are melted away. For a smoke is coming from the north, and no one will straggle behind in his ranks.
32What answer will be given to the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and the poor of his people will find safety in it.