1 For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel and settle them in their own land; and the sojourner shall be joined with them, and they shall cling to the house of Jacob.

2 And the people shall take them and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and maids. And they shall make captives of their captors; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

3 And it shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard service with which you were worked,

4 that you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!

5 Jehovah has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers

6 who struck peoples in wrath, strokes without letup, ruling the nations in anger, a persecution without restraint.

7 The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; they break forth into singing.

8 Yea, the noble trees rejoice over you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you have been laid down, no woodcutter comes up against us.

9 Sheol from below is excited over you, to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, all the chief of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

10 All of them shall speak and say to you, Are you also as weak as we? Have you become like us?

11 Your arrogance is brought down to Sheol, and the noise of your lutes. The maggot is spread under you, and the worms cover you.

12 How you are fallen from the heavens, O shining one, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!

13 For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of the Mighty God; I will also sit on the mount of the appointed assembly, in the recesses of the north.

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.

15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the recesses of the Pit.

16 Those who see you shall stare at you and consider diligently, saying, Is this the man who made the earth to tremble; who shook kingdoms;

17 who made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed its cities; who did not open the house for his prisoners?

18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

19 But you are cast out of your grave like an abhorred branch, and like the apparel of those who are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; like a carcass trampled under foot.

20 You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you destroyed your land and killed your people; the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

21 Prepare slaughter for his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, so that they may not rise nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

22 For I will rise up against them, says Jehovah of Hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and offspring, and posterity, says Jehovah.

23 I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog, and marshes of muddy water; and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, says Jehovah of Hosts.

24 Jehovah of Hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass; and as I have purposed, so it shall stand;

25 to break Assyria in My land, and on My mountains to trample him under foot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden shall be taken from off their shoulders.

26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon all the earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

27 For Jehovah of Hosts has purposed, and who shall annul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

28 This burden was in the year that King Ahaz died:

29 Rejoice not, all you of Philistia, because the rod that struck you is broken; for a viper comes forth from the root of the serpent, and his offspring shall be a fiery flying serpent.

30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and he shall slay your remnant.

31 Howl, O gate! Cry, O city! O Philistia, all of you are melted away; for from the north a smoke comes, with no straggler in his ranks.

32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That Jehovah has founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall take refuge in it.