Isaiah 14

Tree of Life Version

“How the taskmaster has ceased!
The raging oppressor, exacter of gold, has ceased!
⁵ Adonai has broken the rod of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers,
⁶ which struck the people in wrath
    with continual strokes,
which ruled the nations in fury,
    with relentless persecution.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest, and quiet.
They break forth with a ringing cry!
⁸ Even the cypress trees rejoice over you,
along with the cedars of Lebanon:
“Since you were laid low,
    no woodcutter comes up against us.”
⁹ Sheol from below is excited about you,
to meet you at your coming!
He stirs up the dead spirits for you,
    even the chief ones^[a] of the earth.
He makes all the kings of the nations
    rise up from their thrones.
¹⁰ They all answer and say to you:
“Even you have become as weak as us?
Have you become like us?
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol
    with the music of your harps.
Maggots are spread out under you,
    and worms cover you.”

¹⁶ Those who see you will stare at you,
reflecting on what has become of you:
“Is this the one who shook the earth,
    who made kingdoms tremble,
¹⁷ who made the world a wilderness
        and destroyed its cities,
    who never opened the house of his prisoners?”
¹⁸ All the kings of the nations, all of them,
lie in glory, each in his own house.
¹⁹ But you are cast out of your tomb
as a discarded branch,
    garment of the slain,
    pierced with a sword,
    dumped into a stony pit,
    a corpse trodden underfoot.
²⁰ You will not join with them in burial,
because you ruined your land,
    you slaughtered your own people.
The offspring of evildoers will never be named.
²¹ Prepare slaughter for his children
for the iniquity of their fathers,
so they would not rise up and possess the land,
or fill the face of the earth with cities.

²⁴ Adonai Tzva’ot has sworn, saying:
“Surely, as I thought it, so it will be.
As I have purposed, so it will stand.
²⁵ I will break Assyria in My land.
On My mountains I will trample him.
Then his yoke will be taken off them,
his burden removed from their shoulder.
²⁶ This is the purpose planned for the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.”
²⁷ For Adonai-Tzva’ot has purposed,
    so who will annul it?
Since His hand is stretched out,
    who will turn it back?

²⁹ Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia,
that the rod that struck you is broken.
For from the serpent’s root comes a viper
and its fruit will be a flying serpent.
³⁰ The firstborn of the poor will feed,
and the needy will lie down in safety.
I will kill your root with famine,
and your survivors will be slain.
³¹ Wail, O gate! Cry, O city!
Melt away, all you of Philistia!
For smoke is coming from the north,
and there is no straggler in its ranks.

³² What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
For Adonai has founded Zion,
    and the afflicted of His people will find refuge in her.