“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)

²⁰ “For they knew no quiet in their bellies;
    in their greed they let nothing escape.^(E)
21 There was nothing left after they had eaten;
    therefore their prosperity will not endure.^(F)
22 In full sufficiency they will be in distress;
    all the force of misery will come upon them.
²³ To fill their belly to the full,
    God^[a] will send his fierce anger into them
    and rain it upon them as their food.^(G)
24 They will flee from an iron weapon;
    a bronze arrow will strike them through.^(H)
25 It is drawn forth and comes out of their body,
    and the glittering point comes out of their gall;
    terrors come upon them.^(I)
26 Utter darkness is laid up for their treasures;
    a fire fanned by no one will devour them;
    what is left in their tent will be consumed.^(J)
27 The heavens will reveal their iniquity,
    and the earth will rise up against them.^(K)
28 The possessions of their house will be carried away,
    dragged off in the day of God’s^[b] wrath.^(L)
29 This is the portion of the wicked from God,
    the heritage decreed for them by God.”^(M)

“Balak has brought me from Aram,
    the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:
‘Come, curse Jacob for me.
    Come, denounce Israel!’^(A)