“Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!”
    How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?^(A)

How the oppressor has ceased!
    How his insolence^[a] has ceased!^(A)
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
    the scepter of rulers,
⁶ that struck down the peoples in wrath
    with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
    with unrelenting persecution.^(B)
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.”^(C)
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.^(D)
10 All of them will speak
    and say to you:
“You, too, have become as weak as we!
    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.^(E)

¹² How you are fallen from heaven,
    O Morning Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
    you who laid the nations low!^(F)
13 You said to yourself,
    “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;^[b](G)
14 I will ascend to the tops of the clouds;
    I will make myself like the Most High.”^(H)
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
    to the depths of the Pit.^(I)
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,^(J)
17 who made the world like a desert
    and overthrew its cities,
    who would not let his prisoners go home?”^(K)
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,^[c]
clothed with the dead, those pierced by the sword,
    who go down to the stones of the Pit
    like a corpse trampled underfoot.^(L)