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Restoration of Judah

14But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land; and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. ²And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess the nations^* as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

Downfall of the King of Babylon

3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, ⁴you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:
How the oppressor has ceased!
   How his insolence^* has ceased!
⁵ The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
   the sceptre of rulers,
⁶ that struck down the peoples in wrath
   with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
   with unrelenting persecution.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
   they break forth into singing.
⁸ The cypresses exult over you,
   the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low,
   no one comes to cut us down.’
⁹ Sheol beneath is stirred up
   to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
   all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
   all who were kings of the nations.
¹⁰ All of them will speak
   and say to you:
‘You too have become as weak as we are!
   You have become like us!’
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
   and the sound of your harps;
maggots are the bed beneath you,
   and worms are your covering.

¹² How you are fallen from heaven,
   O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
   you who laid the nations low!
¹³ You said in your heart,
   ‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne
   above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
   on the heights of Zaphon;^*
14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds,
   I will make myself like the Most High.’
¹⁵ But you are brought down to Sheol,
   to the depths of the Pit.
¹⁶ Those who see you will stare at you,
   and ponder over you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
   who shook kingdoms,
¹⁷ who made the world like a desert
   and overthrew its cities,
   who would not let his prisoners go home?’
¹⁸ All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
   each in his own tomb;
¹⁹ but you are cast out, away from your grave,
   like loathsome carrion,^*
clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword,
   who go down to the stones of the Pit,
   like a corpse trampled underfoot.
²⁰ You will not be joined with them in burial,
   because you have destroyed your land,
   you have killed your people.

May the descendants of evildoers
   nevermore be named!
²¹ Prepare slaughter for his sons
   because of the guilt of their father.^*
Let them never rise to possess the earth
   or cover the face of the world with cities.

22 I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offspring and posterity, says the Lord. ²³And I will make it a possession of 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

²⁴ The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have designed,
   so shall it be;
and as I have planned,
   so shall it come to pass:
²⁵ I will break the Assyrian in my land,
   and on my mountains trample him under foot;
his yoke shall be removed from them,
   and his burden from their shoulders.
²⁶ This is the plan that is planned
   concerning the whole earth;
and this is the hand that is stretched out
   over all the nations.
²⁷ For the Lord of hosts has planned,
   and who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
   and who will turn it back?

An Oracle concerning Philistia

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

²⁹ Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,
   that the rod that struck you is broken,
for from the root of the snake will come forth an adder,
   and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.
³⁰ The firstborn of the poor will graze,
   and the needy lie down in safety;
but I will make your root die of famine,
   and your remnant I^* will kill.
³¹ Wail, O gate; cry, O city;
   melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you!
For smoke comes out of the north,
   and there is no straggler in its ranks.

³² What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
‘The Lord has founded Zion,
   and the needy among his people
   will find refuge in her.’