Esaias

14

1 And the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and they shall rest on their land: and the stranger shall be added to them, yea, shall be added to the house of Jacob.

2 And the Gentiles shall take them, and bring them into their place: and they shall *inherit them, and †they shall be multiplied upon the land for servants and handmaidens: and they that took them captives shall become captives to them; and they that had lordship over them shall be under their rule.

3 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and vexation, and from thy hard servitude wherein thou didst serve them.

4 And thou shalt take up this lamentation against the king of Babylon,

‡How has the extortioner ceased, and the taskmaster ceased!

5 The Lord has broken the yoke of sinners, the yoke of princes.

6 Having smitten a nation in wrath, with an incurable plague, smiting a nation with a wrathful plague, which spared them not, he rested in quiet.

7 All the earth cries aloud with joy:

8 the trees also of Libanus rejoice against thee, and the cedar of Libanus, saying, From the time that thou hast been laid low, no one has come up to cut us down.

9 Hell from beneath is provoked to meet thee: all the great ones that have ruled over the earth have risen up together against thee, they that have raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

10 All shall answer and say to thee, Thou also hast been taken, even as we; and thou art numbered amongst us.

11 Thy glory has come down to Hades, and thy great mirth: under thee they shall spread corruption, and the worm shall be thy covering.

12 How has Lucifer, that rose in the morning, fallen from heaven! He that sent orders to all the nations is crushed to the earth.

13 But thou saidst in thine heart, I will go up to heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven: I will sit on a lofty mount, on the lofty mountains toward the north:

14 I will go up above the clouds; I will be like the Most High.

15 But now thou shalt go down to hell, even to the foundations of the earth.

16 They that see thee shall wonder at thee, and say, §This is the man that troubled the earth, that made kings to shake;

17 that made the whole world desolate, and destroyed its cities; he loosed not those who were in captivity.

18 All the kings of the nations lie in honour, every man in his house.

19 But thou shalt be cast forth on the mountains, as a loathed carcase, with many dead who have been pierced with swords, going down to the grave.

20 As a garment defiled with blood shall not be pure, so neither shalt thou be pure; because thou hast destroyed my land, and hast slain my people: thou shalt not endure for ever,—thou an evil seed.

21 Prepare thy children to be slain for the sins of their father; that they arise not, and inherit the earth, nor fill the earth with wars.

22 And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will destroy their name, and remnant, and seed: thus saith the Lord.

23 And I will make the region of Babylon desert, so that hedgehogs shall dwell there, and it shall come to nothing: and I will make it a pit of clay for destruction.

24 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, As I have said, so it shall be: and as I have purposed, so the matter shall remain:

25 even to destroy the Assyrians upon my land, and upon my mountains: and they shall be for trampling; and their yoke shall be taken away from them, and their glory shall be taken away from their shoulders.

26 This is the purpose which the Lord has purposed upon the whole earth: and this the hand that is uplifted against all the nations.

27 For what the Holy God has purposed, who shall frustrate? and who shall turn back his uplifted hand?

28 In the year in which king Achaz died this word came.

29 Rejoice not, all ye Philistines, because the yoke of him that smote you is broken: for out of the seed of the serpent shall come forth the young of asps, and their young shall come forth flying serpents.

30 And the poor shall be fed by him, and poor men shall rest in peace: but he shall destroy thy seed with hunger, and shall destroy thy remnant.

31 Howl, ye gates of cities; let the cities be troubled and cry, even all the Philistines: for smoke is coming from the north, and there is no possibility **of living.

32 And what shall the kings of the nations answer? That the Lord has founded Sion, and by him the poor of the people shall be saved.