Isaiah Chapter 14
A Taunt for the King of Babylon
1 When Yahveh will have mercy on Jacob, choose Israel again, and settle them in their own land, foreigners will join Jacob’s house. 2 The nations will help bring them home. Israel will possess them as an inheritance in Yahveh’s land, as male and female servants. They’ll capture their captors and rule their rulers. 3 When Yahveh gives them relief from their pain, turmoil, and harsh slavery, 4 they’ll taunt the king of Babylon:
“How the big bully has ceased bullying
and stopped his insolence!
5 Yahveh has broken the staff of the corrupt,
the scepter of rulers
6 that struck people in fury with endless blows,
that ruled nations with unrestrained tyranny.
7 The whole region is resting and quiet now;
the people are breaking out into shouts of joy.
8 The cypress trees are celebrating over you;
the cedars of Lebanon say,
‘Since you were laid low,
no lumberjacks have come to cut us down.’
Is 14:1-8
9 Sheol below you is excited to welcome you;
the spirits of dead leaders rouse to see you;
the nations’ kings rise from their thrones.
\ 10 They welcome you and say,
‘You’ve become as weak as we are;
you’re like us now.
11 Your pomp and the music of your lyres
have come down to Sheol;
maggots are your bed;
worms are your covers.’
Is 14:9-11
12 How you’ve fallen from the sky,
Morning Star, son of the dawn!
You that overthrew nations
have been thrown to the ground!
13 You told yourself
you’d ascend to the sky
and raise your throne above God’s stars
and preside over the mount of assembly
in the distant north;
14 you’d rise above the clouds
and be like the Most High.
15 But, you’ll be thrust down to Sheol,
to the depths of the Pit.
Is 14:12-15
16 Those who see you will gape and wonder,
‘Is this the king that made the ground shake
and kingdoms tremble,
17 that turned the world into a wasteland,
overthrew cities,
and didn’t let his prisoners go home?’
Is 14:16-17
18 The kings of earth lie in honor
in their magnificent tombs;
19 but you’ll be thrown out of your sepulcher
like a gross miscarriage,
dumped with the slain in a mass grave,
with those pierced by the sword,
who go down into a cistern
like trampled corpses.
20 No one will give you a proper burial
because you’ve ruined your own country
and slain your own people.
21 Slaughter his descendants for their father’s guilt
so they won’t grow up and conquer the world
like he did.”
Is 14:18-21
22 Yahveh of hosts says,
“I’ll attack Babylon and destroy its reputation, children, and posterity. 23 I’ll make a marsh out of it, a haunt for hedgehogs, and sweep it with a broom of destruction.”
24 Yahveh of Hosts has sworn,
“It will happen the way I planned;
it’ll stand like I intended.
25I’ll break Assyria when it comes into my land
and trample it underfoot on my mountains.
I’ll remove its yoke from my people
and its burden from their backs.
26That’s what I’ve planned for the whole region,
a judgment that reaches out across the nations.”
27Yahveh of Hosts has a plan; who’s going to stop it?
Who can shove aside his raised fist?
Is 14:22-27
Oracle Against Philistia
28 The year King Ahaz died, this oracle came:
29 “You that live in Philistia, don’t celebrate
because the rod that struck you is broken;
a more poisonous snake will come.
30 I’ll pasture the firstborn of my poor,
and their needy will lie down safely;
but I’ll starve your root to death
and kill off any survivors.
Is 14:28-30
31 Wail, gates; cry, city;
melt away, Philistia;
because an army is drifting in like smoke from the north,
and every soldier in it rushes to the fight.”
32 What should we tell any messengers the Philistines send?
“Yahveh founded Zion;
the stricken among his people
will find refuge there.”
Is 14:31-32