Isaiah 14:3-23

GOD’S WORD Translation

³ When that day comes, the Lord will give you relief
from your pain and suffering,
from the hard slavery you were forced to do.
⁴ Then you will mock the king of Babylon with this saying,
“How the tyrant has come to an end!
How his attacks have come to an end!”
⁵ The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers.
⁶ They struck the people with fury,
with blows that didn’t stop.
They ruled nations in anger,
persecuting them without restraint.
⁷ The whole earth rests and is peaceful.
It breaks out into shouts of joy.
⁸ Even the cypresses rejoice over you.
The cedars of Lebanon say,
“Since you have fallen,
no lumberjack has come to attack us.”

⁹ Sheol below wakes up to meet you when you come.
It wakes up the ghosts of the dead,
all who were leaders on earth.
It raises all who were kings of the nations from their thrones.
¹⁰ All of them will greet you,
“You also have become weak like us!
You have become like one of us!”
¹¹ Your pride has been brought down to Sheol
along with the music of your harps.
Maggots are spread out ⌞like a bed⌟ under you,
and worms cover you.

¹² How you have fallen from heaven, you morning star, son of the dawn!
How you have been cut down to the ground, you conqueror of nations!
¹³ You thought,
“I’ll go up to heaven and set up my throne above God’s stars.
I’ll sit on the mountain far away in the north
where the gods assemble.
¹⁴ I’ll go above the top of the clouds.
I’ll be like the Most High.”
¹⁵ But you’ve been brought down to Sheol,
to the deepest part of the pit.
¹⁶ Those who see you stare at you; they look at you closely and say,
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook the kingdoms,
¹⁷ who made the world like a desert and tore down its cities,
who didn’t let his prisoners go home?”

¹⁸ All the kings of the nations, all of them,
have been buried with honor, each in his own tomb.
¹⁹ But you are thrown out of your tomb like a rejected branch.
You are covered with those who were killed in battle.
You go down to the stones of the pit like a trampled corpse.
²⁰ You won’t be joined by the kings in the tomb,
because you have destroyed your land and killed your people.

The descendants of the wicked will never be mentioned again.
²¹ Prepare a place to slaughter their sons
because of their ancestors’ guilt.
They won’t be able to rise, possess the earth,
and rebuild cities all over it.

²² “I’ll rise up against them,” declares the Lord of Armies.
“I’ll cut off the name of the survivors from Babylon,
its offspring and descendants,” declares the Lord.
²³ “It will become the possession of herons.
It will become pools of water.
I’ll sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of Armies.