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1For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob and will once again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will attach themselves to the house of Jacob.
2And the people will take them and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh’s land for male servants and for female servants. They will take as captives those whose captives they were, and they will rule over their oppressors.
3It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,
4that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon and say,
“How the oppressor has ceased!
The golden city has ceased!”
5 Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers
6 who struck the peoples in wrath
with a relentless stroke,
who ruled the nations in anger
with a persecution that none restrained.
7 The whole earth is at rest and is quiet.
They break out song.
8 Yes, the fir trees rejoice with you,
with the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you are humbled,
no lumberjack has come up against us.”
9 Sheol from beneath has moved for you
even all the he-goats of the earth.
It has raised up from their thrones
10 They all will answer and ask you,
“Have you also become as weak as we are?
Have you become like us?”
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol
with the sound of your stringed instruments.
Maggots are spread out under you,
and worms cover you.
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
How you are cut down to the ground,
I will sit on the mountain of assembly
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds!
I will make myself like the Most High!”
15 Yet you will be brought down to Sheol,
to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you.
They will ponder you, saying,
“Is this the man who made the earth to tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a wilderness
and overthrew its cities,
who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”
18 All the kings of the nations,
sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.
19 But you are cast away from your tomb
like an abominable branch,
clothed with the slain who are thrust through with the sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit;
like a dead body trampled underfoot.
20 You will not join them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land.
You have killed your people.
The seed of evildoers
will not be named forever.
21 Prepare for slaughter of his children
because of the iniquity of their fathers,
that they not rise up and possess the earth
and fill the surface of the world with cities.
22“I will rise up against them,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says Yahweh.
23“I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of Armies.
24Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying,
“Surely, as I have thought, so will it happen,
and as I have purposed, so will it stand:
25 that I will break the Assyrian in my land
and tread him under foot on my mountains.
Then his yoke will leave them,
and his burden leave their shoulders.
that is determined for the whole earth.
This is the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.
27 For Yahweh of Armies has planned,
and who can stop it?
His hand is stretched out,
and who can turn it back?”
28In the year that king Ahaz died this prophetic burden came:
29 Do not rejoice, O Philistia, all of you,
because the rod that struck you is broken;
for out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge,
and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.
30 The poorest of the poor will eat plenty,
and the needy will lie down in safety;
but I will kill your root with famine,
and your remnant will be killed.
31 Howl, O gate! Cry out, O city!
Melt away in fear, Philistia, all of you;
for smoke comes out of the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 What will they answer the messengers of the nation?
That Yahweh has founded Zion,
and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge.
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