The Return from Exile
1 The Lord will once again be merciful to his people Israel and choose them as his own. He will let them live in their own land again, and foreigners will come and live there with them. 2 Many nations will help the people of Israel return to the land which the Lord gave them, and there the nations will serve Israel as slaves. Those who once captured Israel will now be captured by Israel, and the people of Israel will rule over those who once oppressed them.
The King of Babylon in the World of the Dead
3 The Lord will give the people of Israel relief from their pain and suffering and from the hard work they were forced to do. 4 When he does this, they are to mock the king of Babylon and say:
“The cruel king has fallen! He will never oppress anyone again! 5 The Lord has ended the power of the evil rulers 6 who angrily oppressed the peoples and never stopped persecuting the nations they had conquered. 7 Now at last the whole world enjoys rest and peace, and everyone sings for joy. 8 The cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon rejoice over the fallen king, because there is no one to cut them down, now that he is gone!
9 “The world of the dead is getting ready to welcome the king of Babylon. The ghosts of those who were powerful on earth are stirring about. The ghosts of kings are rising from their thrones. 10 They all call out to him, ‘Now you are as weak as we are! You are one of us! 11 You used to be honored with the music of harps, but now here you are in the world of the dead. You lie on a bed of maggots and are covered with a blanket of worms.’”
12 King of Babylon, bright morning star, you have fallen from heaven! In the past you conquered nations, but now you have been thrown to the ground. 13 You were determined to climb up to heaven and to place your throne above the highest stars. You thought you would sit like a king on that mountain in the north where the gods assemble. 14 You said you would climb to the tops of the clouds and be like the Almighty. 15 But instead, you have been brought down to the deepest part of the world of the dead.
16 The dead will stare and gape at you. They will ask, “Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble? 17 Is this the man who destroyed cities and turned the world into a desert? Is this the man who never freed his prisoners or let them go home?”
18 All the kings of the earth lie in their magnificent tombs, 19 but you have no tomb, and your corpse is thrown out to rot. It is covered by the bodies of soldiers killed in battle, thrown with them into a rocky pit, and trampled down. 20 Because you ruined your country and killed your own people, you will not be buried like other kings. None of your evil family will survive. 21 Let the slaughter begin! The sons of this king will die because of their ancestors' sins. None of them will ever rule the earth or cover it with cities.
God Will Destroy Babylon
22 The Lord Almighty says, “I will attack Babylon and bring it to ruin. I will leave nothing—no children, no survivors at all. I, the Lord, have spoken. 23 I will turn Babylon into a marsh, and owls will live there. I will sweep Babylon with a broom that will sweep everything away. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.”
God Will Destroy the Assyrians
24 The Lord Almighty has sworn an oath: “What I have planned will happen. What I have determined to do will be done. 25 I will destroy the Assyrians in my land of Israel and trample them on my mountains. I will free my people from the Assyrian yoke and from the burdens they have had to bear. 26 This is my plan for the world, and my arm is stretched out to punish the nations.” 27 The Lord Almighty is determined to do this; he has stretched out his arm to punish, and no one can stop him.
God Will Destroy the Philistines
28 This is a message that was proclaimed in the year that King Ahaz died.
29 People of Philistia, the rod that beat you is broken, but you have no reason to be glad. When one snake dies, a worse one comes in its place. A snake's egg hatches a flying dragon. 30 The Lord will be a shepherd to the poor of his people and will let them live in safety. But he will send a terrible famine on you Philistines, and it will not leave any of you alive.
31 Howl and cry for help, all you Philistine cities! Be terrified, all of you! A cloud of dust is coming from the north—it is an army with no cowards in its ranks.
32 How shall we answer the messengers that come to us from Philistia? We will tell them that the Lord has established Zion and that his suffering people will find safety there.
1 For the Lord wil haue compassion of Iaakob, and wil yet chuse Israel, and cause them to rest in their owne lande: and the stranger shall ioyne him selfe vnto them, and they shall cleaue to the house of Iaakob. 2 And the people shall receiue them and bring them to their owne place, and the house of Israel shall possesse them in the land of the Lord, for seruants and handmaids: and they shall take them prisoners, whose captiues they were, and haue rule ouer their oppressours. 3 And in that day when the Lord shall giue thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy feare, and from the sore bodage, wherein thou didest serue, 4 Then shalt thou take vp this prouerbe against the King of Babel, and say, Howe hath the oppressor ceased? and the gold thirsty Babel rested? 5 The Lord hath broken the rodde of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers: 6 Which smote the people in anger with a continuall plague, and ruled the nations in wrath: if any were persecuted, he did not let. 7 The whole worlde is at rest and is quiet: they sing for ioye. 8 Also the firre trees reioyced of thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid downe, no hewer came vp against vs. 9 Hel beneath is mooued for thee to meete thee at thy comming, raising vp the deade for thee, euen all the princes of the earth, and hath raised from their thrones all the Kinges of the nations. 10 All they shall crie, and saie vnto thee, Art thou become weake also as we? art thou become like vnto vs? 11 Thy pompe is brought downe to ye graue, and the sounde of thy violes: the worme is spred vnder thee, and the wormes couer thee. 12 How art thou fallen from heauen, O Lucifer, sonne of the morning? and cutte downe to the grounde, which didest cast lottes vpon the nations? 13 Yet thou saidest in thine heart, I will ascende into heauen, and exalt my throne aboue beside the starres of God: I will sitte also vpon the mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. 14 I wil ascend aboue ye height of the cloudes, and I will be like the most high. 15 But thou shalt bee brought downe to the graue, to the sides of the pit. 16 They that see thee, shall looke vpon thee and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, and that did shake the kingdomes? 17 He made the worlde as a wildernesse, and destroied the cities thereof, and opened not the house of his prisoners. 18 All the Kings of the nations, euen they all sleepe in glorie, euery one in his owne house. 19 But thou art cast out of thy graue like an abominable branch: like the raiment of those that are slaine, and thrust thorowe with a sword, which goe downe to the stones of the pit, as a carkeise troden vnder feete. 20 Thou shalt not be ioyned with them in the graue, because thou hast destroied thine owne lande, and slaine thy people: the seede of the wicked shall not be renoumed for euer. 21 Prepare a slaughter for his children, for the iniquitie of their fathers: let them not rise vp nor possesse the land, nor fil the face of the world with enemies. 22 For I wil rise vp against them (sayth the Lord of hostes) and will cut off from Babel the name and the remnant and the sonne, and the nephew, sayth the Lord: 23 And I wil make it a possession to ye hedgehogge, and pooles of water, and I will sweepe it with the besome of destruction, sayeth the Lord of hostes. 24 The Lord of hostes hath sworne, saying, Surely like as I haue purposed, so shall it come to passe, and as I haue consulted, it shall stand: 25 That I will breake to pieces Asshur in my land, and vpon my mountaines will I treade him vnder foote: so that his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden shall be taken from off their shoulder. 26 This is the counsell that is consulted vpon the whole worlde, and this is the hande stretched out ouer all the nations, 27 Because the Lord of hostes hath determined it, and who shall disanull it? and his hande is stretched out, and who shall turne it away? 28 In the yeere that King Ahaz died, was this burden. 29 Reioyce not, (thou whole Palestina) because the rod of him that did beat thee, is broken for out of the serpents roote shall come forth a cockatrise, and the fruit therof shalbe a firy flying serpent. 30 For the first borne of the poore shall be fed, and the needie shall lie downe in safetie: and I will kill thy roote with famine, and it shall slay thy remnant. 31 Howle, O gate, crie, O citie: thou whole lande of Palestina art dissolued, for there shall come from the North a smoke, and none shalbe alone, at his time appointed. 32 What shall then one answere the messengers of the Gentiles? That the Lord hath stablished Zion, and the poore of his people shall trust in it.