Isaiah 14 - Modern English Version

The Restoration of Judah

¹ For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. Then the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

² The people shall take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids; and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors.

The Fall of Babylon’s King

³ In the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage in which you were made to serve,

⁴ you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: How has the oppressor ceased! The golden city ceased!

⁵ The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers;

⁶ he who struck the people in wrath with unceasing strokes, he who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and no one hinders.

⁷ The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; they break forth into singing.

⁸ Indeed, the fir trees rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are laid down, no tree cutter has come up against us.”

⁹ Sheol from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

¹⁰ They all shall speak and say to you: “Have you also become as weak as we have? Have you become like us?”

¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of your harps; maggots are spread under you, and the worms cover you.

¹² How are you fallen from heaven, O shining one, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations!

¹³ For you have said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also on the mount of the congregation, in the recesses of the north;

¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.”

¹⁵ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the sides of the pit.

¹⁶ Those who see you shall stare at you and ponder over you: “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble and shook kingdoms,

¹⁷ who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?”

¹⁸ All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, each one in his own tomb;

¹⁹ but you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch and clothed with those who are slain, thrust through with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit as a corpse trodden underfoot.

²⁰ You shall not be joined with them in burial because you have destroyed your land and slain your people. The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

²¹ Prepare a place of slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; they must not rise nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

²² For I will rise up against them, says the Lord of Hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, says the Lord.

²³ I will also make it a possession for 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, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

²⁵ that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains tread him underfoot. Then shall his yoke depart from off them and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

²⁶ This is the purpose that is purposed on the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations.

²⁷ For the Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

An Oracle Concerning Philistia

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

²⁹ Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

³⁰ The firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill your root with famine, and he shall slay your remnant.

³¹ Wail, O gate. Cry, O city. Melt away, O Philistia, all of you; for smoke shall come from the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.

³² What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord has founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it.