The Restoration of Judah

¹For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob,[#Ps 102:13]

and will yet choose Israel,

and set them in their own land.

Then the strangers shall be joined with them,

and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

²The people shall take them

and bring them to their place,

and the house of Israel shall possess them

in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids;

and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were,

and they shall rule over their oppressors.

The Fall of Babylon’s King

³In the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage in which you were made to serve,[#Ezr 9:8–9; Jer 30:10]

⁴you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:

How has the oppressor ceased!

The golden city ceased!

⁵The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

and the scepter of the rulers;

⁶he who struck the people in wrath with unceasing strokes,

he who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and no one hinders.

⁷The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;

they break forth into singing.

⁸Indeed, the fir trees rejoice at you,

and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

“Since you are laid down,

no tree cutter has come up against us.”

⁹Sheol from beneath is moved for you

to meet you at your coming;

it stirs up the dead for you,

even all the chief ones of the earth;

it has raised up from their thrones

all the kings of the nations.

¹⁰They all shall speak

and say to you:

“Have you also become as weak as we have?

Have you become like us?”

¹¹Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,

and the noise of your harps;

maggots are spread under you,

and the worms cover you.

¹²How are you fallen from heaven,

O shining one, son of the morning!

How you are cut down to the ground,

you who weaken the nations!

¹³For you have said in your heart,

“I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne

above the stars of God;

I will sit also on the mount of the congregation,

in the recesses of the north;

¹⁴I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

I will be like the Most High.”

¹⁵Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,[#Mt 11:23]

to the sides of the pit.

¹⁶Those who see you shall stare at you

and ponder over you:

“Is this the man who made the earth

to tremble and shook kingdoms,

¹⁷who made the world as a wilderness

and destroyed its cities,

who did not open the house of his prisoners?”

¹⁸All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory,

each one in his own tomb;

¹⁹but you are cast out of your grave

like an abominable branch

and clothed with those who are slain,

thrust through with a sword,

who go down to the stones of the pit

as a corpse trodden underfoot.

²⁰You shall not be joined with them in burial

because you have destroyed your land

and slain your people.

The seed of evildoers

shall never be renowned.

²¹Prepare a place of slaughter for his children

for the iniquity of their fathers;

they must not rise nor possess the land,

nor fill the face of the world with cities.

²²For I will rise up against them,

says the Lord of Hosts,

and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant,

and son, and nephew,

says the Lord .

²³I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog

and pools of water,

and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,

says the Lord of Hosts.

An Oracle Concerning Assyria

²⁴The Lord of Hosts has sworn, saying:

Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass,

and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

²⁵that I will break the Assyrian in My land,

and on My mountains tread him underfoot.

Then shall his yoke depart from off them

and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed on the whole earth,

and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations.

²⁷For the Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it?

And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

An Oracle Concerning Philistia

²⁸In the year that King Ahaz died was this oracle:[#2Ki 16:20; 2Ch 28:27]

²⁹Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,[#Jer 47; Eze 25:15–17]

because the rod that struck you is broken;

for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper,

and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

³⁰The firstborn of the poor shall feed,

and the needy shall lie down in safety:

and I will kill your root with famine,

and he shall slay your remnant.

³¹Wail, O gate. Cry, O city.[#Isa 13:6]

Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;

for smoke shall come from the north,

and there is no straggler in his ranks.

³²What shall one then answer

the messengers of the nation?

That the Lord has founded Zion,

and the poor of His people shall trust in it.