Isaiah 14
14
Chapter 14
God's people will return
1The Lord will once again be kind to Jacob's descendants. He will choose to help the Israelite people again, as his own people. He will put them back in their land. Foreign people will join them and they will become a part of Jacob's family. 2People of other nations will help Israel's people to return to their own country. When they are living again in the land that the Lord gave to them, foreign people will become their servants, both men and women. In that way, the people who made the Israelites prisoners will be prisoners themselves! The Israelites will rule over the people who had been cruel to them.
The king of Babylon will die
3At that time, the Lord will let you live safely, without trouble and without pain. You will no longer have to work for cruel people, as their slaves. 4Then you will laugh at the king of Babylon. You will say to him,
‘Now you cannot be cruel to us any more! Your power to cause trouble has finished! 5The Lord has destroyed the authority of wicked rulers like you.
6You used your power to attack people all the time. In your anger, you ruled over other nations, and you never stopped being cruel to them.
7But now there is peace in the whole world. People can live safely. Everyone is so happy that they are singing! 8Even the pine trees and the cedar trees in Lebanon are happy because your power has finished. They say to you, “Now God has knocked you down. So nobody will come again to cut us down!”
9The deep hole of death below the earth is ready to receive you! People there want to meet you. The spirits of those who ruled on the earth have heard that you are coming. They are standing up from their thrones. 10All of them will say to you, “Now you have become as weak as we are! You are weak like us!”
11Your great power has now come down low, into the deep hole of death. People no longer praise you with their harps. Now you will lie on a bed of maggots. #14:11 A maggot is like a small worm. Often maggots live in dead bodies which they eat. A blanket of worms will cover you.
12Look at you! You have fallen from heaven!
You shine like the bright morning star!
You have won against many nations,
but now you have come down very low!
13You said to yourself, “I will go up into heaven.
I will put my throne above the stars of God.
I will rule as king on the mountain in the far north,
where the gods of the nations meet together.
14I will go up above the tops of the clouds.
I will become like the Most High God.”
15But instead of that, you have come down into the deep hole of death.
You have fallen to the deepest place under the earth.
16In that deep place, people will look at you carefully. They will be very surprised. They will think, “This is the man who caused the earth to shake. He caused kingdoms to shake with fear. Is that really true? 17Is this really the man who made the world become like a desert? He destroyed its cities. He did not let his prisoners go back to their homes.”
18All the kings of all the nations lie down there, with all their valuable things. Each king lies in his own grave. 19But as for you, Babylon's king, they have thrown you out! You have no grave! You are like a branch that has broken off. You lie among the dead bodies of soldiers that their enemies have killed with their swords. They have thrown your body into a big hole in the rocks, and they have walked over it.
20They will not bury you with those other kings, because you destroyed your land and you killed your people. Nobody will ever remember the family of a wicked person like you.
21Prepare to kill this king's children, because of the sins of their ancestors. Then his children will not rule the world. They will not build cities everywhere.’
22This is what the Lord Almighty says, ‘I will attack Babylon and I will destroy it. I will leave nothing that people can remember. No people or their descendants will remain.’
23The Lord Almighty says, ‘I will make Babylon a place where wild animals live. There will be pools of bad water. I will sweep everything away, like someone who sweeps dirt away with a brush.’
A message about Assyria
24The Lord Almighty promises this: ‘It will happen exactly as I have decided. Yes, it will really happen like that. 25I will destroy the Assyrians who are in my land. I will knock them down on my mountains. They will no longer be cruel to my people. My people will not be their slaves any more. 26That is what I have decided for the whole earth. I am ready to show my power against all the nations.’
27Yes, the Lord Almighty has decided what he will do. Nobody can change it. He is ready to show his power. Nobody can stop it.
A message about Philistia
28In the year that King Ahaz died, God showed this message to Isaiah:
29Do not feel happy, you Philistine people. God has destroyed the king who was attacking you. That king hit you with a big stick, but a dangerous snake will follow! And that snake will give birth to an even more dangerous snake that moves very fast.
30The Lord will give food to the poorest of his people. The weak and helpless people will live safely. But you Philistine people will die from famine. I will destroy you all, so that nobody remains.
31Gate of the city, weep! #14:31 The gate in a city was the place where important people met. So the word ‘gate’ here may mean those important people. City, cry out in pain! You Philistine people should be very afraid! See that cloud of smoke in the north! It is the dust of an army that is marching towards you. Their soldiers are ready to fight, and none of them is afraid.
32When a foreign nation sends a message, what should we say? Say that the Lord has made Zion very strong. When his people have trouble, they will be safe there.
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MissionAssist 2018
Isaiah 14
14
Israel’s Return
1For the Lord will have compassion#1Kg 3:26 on Jacob and will choose Israel again.#Dt 7:7; Ps 102:13; Zch 1:17 He will settle them on their own land.#Dt 12:10; 2Sm 7:1 The resident alien will join them and be united with the house of Jacob.#Dt 14:21,29; Zch 8:22–23; Eph 2:12–14 2The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess them as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land.#Is 9:7; 45:14–25; 49:22–26; 60:9; 61:5; 66:19–24 They will make captives of their captors and will rule over their oppressors.
Downfall of the King of Babylon
3When the Lord gives you rest from your pain,#Gn 3:16; Is 14:3; Jr 44:19 torment, and the hard labor#Ex 1:14 you were forced to do, 4you will sing this song of contempt about the king of Babylon#Mc 2:4; Hab 2:6 and say:
How the oppressor has quieted down,
and how the raging#14:4 DSS; Hb uncertain has become quiet!
5The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of the rulers.
6It struck the peoples in anger
with unceasing blows.
It subdued the nations in rage
with relentless persecution.
7The whole earth is calm and at rest;
people shout with a ringing cry.
8Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon
rejoice over you:#Ps 104:16; Is 55:12; Ezk 31:16
“Since you have been laid low,
no lumberjack has come against us.”
9Sheol below is eager to greet your coming,
stirring up the spirits of the departed for you —
all the rulers#14:9 Lit rams of the earth —
making all the kings of the nations
rise from their thrones.
10They all respond to you, saying,
“You too have become as weak as we are;
you have become like us!
11Your splendor has been brought down to Sheol,
along with the music of your harps.
Maggots are spread out under you,
and worms cover you.”
12Shining morning star,#14:12 Or Day Star, son of the dawn#2Pt 1:19; Rv 2:28; 22:16
how you have fallen from the heavens!#Is 34:4; Lk 10:18; Rv 8:10; 9:1
You destroyer of nations,
you have been cut down to the ground.
13You said to yourself,
“I will ascend to the heavens;#Jr 51:53; Ezk 28:2; Am 9:2
I will set up my throne
above the stars of God.#Dn 5:22–23; 8:10; 2Th 2:4
I will sit on the mount of the gods’ assembly,
in the remotest parts of the North.#14:13 Or of Zaphon#Ps 48:2
14I will ascend above the highest clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15But you will be brought down to Sheol
into the deepest regions of the Pit.#Ps 28:1; Is 38:18; Ezk 28:8; Mt 11:23; Lk 10:15
16Those who see you will stare at you;
they will look closely at you:
“Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble,
who shook the kingdoms,
17who turned the world into a wilderness,#Jl 1:19–20; 2:3,22; 3:19
who destroyed its cities
and would not release the prisoners to return home?”
18All the kings of the nations
lie in splendor, each in his own tomb.
19But you are thrown out without a grave,
like a worthless branch,
covered by those slain with the sword
and dumped into a rocky pit like a trampled corpse.
20You will not join them in burial,
because you destroyed your land
and slaughtered your own people.
The offspring of evildoers
will never be mentioned again.#Jb 18:16,19; Ps 21:10; 37:28; Is 1:4; 31:2
21Prepare a place of slaughter for his sons,
because of the iniquity#Is 13:11 of their ancestors.
They will never rise up to possess a land
or fill the surface of the earth with cities.
22“I will rise up against them” — this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies — “and I will cut off from Babylon her reputation, remnant, offspring, and posterity” — this is the Lord’s declaration. 23“I will make her a swampland and a region for herons,#14:23 Or hedgehogs; Hb obscure and I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction.”
This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.
Assyria Will Be Destroyed
24The Lord of Armies has sworn:
As I have purposed, so it will be;
as I have planned it, so it will happen.#Pr 16:4; Is 46:11; Jr 23:20; 30:24; 51:29; Zch 1:6; Eph 1:11; Rv 17:17
25I will break Assyria#Is 8:7; 10:5–15,27 in my land;
I will tread him down on my mountain.
Then his yoke will be taken from them,
and his burden will be removed from their shoulders.
26This is the plan#Is 5:19 prepared
for the whole earth,
and this is the hand stretched out
against all the nations.
27The Lord of Armies himself has planned it;
therefore, who can stand in its way?
It is his hand that is outstretched,
so who can turn it back?
A Pronouncement against Philistia
28In the year that King Ahaz died,#2Kg 16:20; 2Ch 28:27; Is 6:1 this pronouncement came:#Is 13:1
29Don’t rejoice, all of you in Philistia,
because the rod of the one who struck you#1Sm 17:50; 18:25–30; 19:8; 23:1–5; 2Sm 5:17–25; 8:1 is broken.
For a viper will come from the root#14:29 Or stock of a snake,
and from its egg comes a flying serpent.#Ex 4:2–3; 7:10–12; Is 30:6
30Then the firstborn#Ex 4:22 of the poor will be well fed,
and the impoverished will lie down in safety,
but I will kill your root with hunger,
and your remnant will be slain.
31Wail, you gates!#Is 3:26; 24:12; 45:2 Cry out, city!
Tremble with fear,#Jos 2:9,24 all Philistia!
For a cloud of dust is coming from the north,#Is 41:25; Jr 1:13–14; 4:6; 6:1; 47:2; 50:3,9,41
and there is no one missing from the invader’s ranks.
32What answer will be given to the messengers from that nation?
The Lord has founded Zion,#Ps 87:1,5; 102:16; Is 28:16; 44:28; 54:11
and his oppressed people find refuge in her.
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