Isaiah 14
14
XIV
1For Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob,
And will yet choose Israel;
And he will settle them in their own land,
And the stranger shall be joined unto them;
And they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2And the people shall take them, and bring them into their own place;
And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah,
As servants, and as handmaids:
And they shall take them captives, whose captives they were;
And they shall rule over their oppressors.
3And it shall come to pass in that day, when Jehovah shall give thee rest from thine affliction, and from thy disquiet, and from the hard labour which was imposed upon thee, 4that thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon; and shalt say:
How hath the oppressor ceased!
She that exacted gold ceased!
5 Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked,
The rod of the tyrants,
6Which smote the people in wrath,
With a smiting without intermission;
That ruled the nations in anger,
With an oppression without restraint
7The whole earth is at rest, it is quiet;
They have burst forth into a joyful shout:
8Even the fir-trees rejoice over thee,
And the cedars of Lebanon, saying:
Since thou art laid down,
No feller hath come up against us.
9Hades from beneath is moved because of thee,
To meet thee at thy coming:
It stirreth up for thee the shades of all the chieftains of the earth;
It maketh to rise from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10All these shall speak, and say unto thee:
Art thou also become weak as we?
Art thou become like unto us?
11Thy pomp is brought down to Hades,
The sounding of thy viols:
Under thee is spread the worm,
And the maggot is thy covering.
12How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning! Cut down to the earth,
Thou that didst triumph over the nations!
13For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend the heavens;
Above the stars of God will I exalt my throne;
And I will sit upon the mount of the assembly, in the farthest regions of the North:
14I will ascend above the heights of the cloud;
I will be like the Most High.
15Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hades,
To the lowest depths of the pit.
16Those that see thee shall look attentively at thee;
They shall meditate upon thee;
Is this the man that made the earth to tremble?
That shook the kingdoms?
17That made the world like a wilderness,
And destroyed the cities thereof?
That loosed not his prisoners homeward?
18All the kings of the nations, all of them,
Lie down in splendour, each in his own sepulchre:
19But thou art cast away, deprived of thy grave,
As a branch that is abominated;
Covered with the slain, the pierced by the sword,
Who soon go down to the stones of the pit,
As a carcase trodden under foot.
20Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial;
Because thou hast destroyed thy country, hast slain thy people:
The seed of evil doers shall not be named for ever.
21Prepare slaughter for his children,
For the iniquity of their fathers;
Lest they rise, and possess the earth,.
And fill the face of the world with enemies.
22For I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah of hosts,
I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant;
And son and grandson, saith Jehovah.
23And I will make it a place of inheritance for the porcupine, and pools of water;
And I will sweep it away with the besom of destruction, saith Jehovah of hosts.
24 Jehovah of hosts hath sworn, saying,
Surely as I have devised, so shall it be;
And as I have purposed, so it shall stand:
25To crush the Assyrian in my land,
And upon my mountains will I trample him:
Then shall his yoke depart from off them,
And his burden shall be removed from off their shoulder.
26This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth;
And this is the band which is stretched out over all the nations.
27For Jehovah of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?
And as to his hand that is stretched out, who shall turn it back?
28IN THE YEAR IN WHICH AHAZ THE KING DIED, THIS
ORACLE WAS DELIVERED.
29Rejoice not, O Philistia, through thy extent,
Because the rod which smote thee is broken:
For from the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk;
And his fruit shall be a flying serpent.
30And the first-born of the poor shall feed,
And the needy shall lie down in safety:
But I will kill thy root with famine,
And thy remnant shall he slay.
31Howl, O gate! cry out, O city!
O Philistia, thou art altogether agitated!
For from the North cometh a smoke;
And no one standeth aloof from among his troop.
32And what shall one answer the ambassadors of the nations?
That Jehovah hath founded Zion;
And the poor of his people shall take refuge in her.
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Isaiah 14: TEG
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.
Isaiah 14
14
Now You Are Nothing
1-2But not so with Jacob. God will have compassion on Jacob. Once again he’ll choose Israel. He’ll establish them in their own country. Outsiders will be attracted and throw their lot in with Jacob. The nations among whom they lived will actually escort them back home, and then Israel will pay them back by making slaves of them, men and women alike, possessing them as slaves in God’s country, capturing those who had captured them, ruling over those who had abused them.
3-4a When God has given you time to recover from the abuse and trouble and harsh servitude that you had to endure, you can amuse yourselves by taking up this satire, a taunt against the king of Babylon:
4b-6 Can you believe it? The tyrant is gone!
The tyranny is over!
God has broken the rule of the wicked,
the power of the bully-rulers
That crushed many people.
A relentless rain of cruel outrage
Established a violent rule of anger
rife with torture and persecution.
7-10And now it’s over, the whole earth quietly at rest.
Burst into song! Make the rafters ring!
Ponderosa pine trees are happy,
giant Lebanon cedars are relieved, saying,
“Since you’ve been cut down,
there’s no one around to cut us down.”
And the underworld dead are all excited,
preparing to welcome you when you come.
Getting ready to greet you are the ghostly dead,
all the famous names of earth.
All the buried kings of the nations
will stand up on their thrones
With well-prepared speeches,
royal invitations to death:
“Now you are as nothing as we are!
Make yourselves at home with us dead folks!”
11This is where your pomp and fine music led you, Babylon,
to your underworld private chambers,
A king-size mattress of maggots for repose
and a quilt of crawling worms for warmth.
12What a comedown this, O Babylon!
Daystar! Son of Dawn!
Flat on your face in the underworld mud,
you, famous for flattening nations!
13-14You said to yourself,
“I’ll climb to heaven.
I’ll set my throne
over the stars of God.
I’ll run the assembly of angels
that meets on sacred Mount Zaphon.
I’ll climb to the top of the clouds.
I’ll take over as King of the Universe!”
15-17But you didn’t make it, did you?
Instead of climbing up, you came down—
Down with the underground dead,
down to the abyss of the Pit.
People will stare and muse:
“Can this be the one
Who terrorized earth and its kingdoms,
turned earth to a moonscape,
Wasted its cities,
shut up his prisoners to a living death?”
18-20Other kings get a decent burial,
honored with eulogies and placed in a tomb.
But you’re dumped in a ditch unburied,
like a stray dog or cat,
Covered with rotting bodies,
murdered and indigent corpses.
Your dead body desecrated, mutilated—
no state funeral for you!
You’ve left your land in ruins,
left a legacy of massacre.
The progeny of your evil life
will never be named. Oblivion!
21Get a place ready to slaughter the sons of the wicked
and wipe out their father’s line.
Unthinkable that they should own a square foot of land
or desecrate the face of the world with their cities!
22-23“I will confront them”—Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies—“and strip Babylon of name and survivors, children and grandchildren.” God’s Decree. “I’ll make it a worthless swamp and give it as a prize to the hedgehog. And then I’ll bulldoze it out of existence.” Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
Who Could Ever Cancel Such Plans?
24-27 God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaks:
“Exactly as I planned,
it will happen.
Following my blueprints,
it will take shape.
I will shatter the Assyrian who trespasses my land
and stomp him into the dirt on my mountains.
I will ban his taking and making of slaves
and lift the weight of oppression from all shoulders.”
This is the plan,
planned for the whole earth,
And this is the hand that will do it,
reaching into every nation.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies has planned it.
Who could ever cancel such plans?
His is the hand that’s reached out.
Who could brush it aside?
28-31In the year King Ahaz died, this Message came:
Hold it, Philistines! It’s too soon to celebrate
the defeat of your cruel oppressor.
From the death throes of that snake a worse snake will come,
and from that, one even worse.
The poor won’t have to worry.
The needy will escape the terror.
But you Philistines will be plunged into famine,
and those who don’t starve, God will kill.
Wail and howl, proud city!
Fall prostrate in fear, Philistia!
On the northern horizon, smoke from burned cities,
the wake of a brutal, disciplined destroyer.
32What does one say to
outsiders who ask questions?
Tell them, “God has established Zion.
Those in need and in trouble find refuge in her.”
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.