Isaiah 14
14
Israel Will Return Home
1The Lord will show mercy to the people of Jacob, and he will again choose the people of Israel. He will settle them in their own land. Then non-Israelite people will join the Israelites and will become a part of the family of Jacob. 2Nations will take the Israelites back to their land. Then those men and women from the other nations will become slaves to Israel in the Lord’s land. In the past the Israelites were their slaves, but now the Israelites will defeat those nations and rule over them.
The King of Babylon Will Fall
3The Lord will take away the Israelites’ hard work and will comfort them. They will no longer have to work hard as slaves. 4On that day Israel will sing this song about the king of Babylon:
The cruel king who ruled us is finished;
his angry rule is finished!
5The Lord has broken the scepter of evil rulers
and taken away their power.
6The king of Babylon struck people in anger
again and again.
He ruled nations in anger
and continued to hurt them.
7But now, the whole world rests and is quiet.
Now the people begin to sing.
8Even the pine trees are happy,
and the cedar trees of Lebanon rejoice.
They say, “The king has fallen,
so no one will ever cut us down again.”
9The place of the dead is excited
to meet you when you come.
It wakes the spirits of the dead,
the leaders of the world.
It makes kings of all nations
stand up from their thrones to greet you.
10All these leaders will make fun of you
and will say,
“Now you are weak, as we are.
Now you are just like us.”
11Your pride has been sent down to the place of the dead.
The music from your harps goes with it.
Flies are spread out like your bed beneath you,
and worms cover your body like a blanket.
12King of Babylon, morning star, you have fallen from heaven,
even though you were as bright as the rising sun!
In the past all the nations on earth bowed down before you,
but now you have been cut down.
13You told yourself,
“I will go up to heaven.
I will put my throne
above God’s stars.
I will sit on the mountain of the gods,
on the slopes of the sacred mountain.
14I will go up above the tops of the clouds.
I will be like God Most High.”
15But you were brought down to the grave,
to the deep places where the dead are.
16Those who see you stare at you.
They think about what has happened to you
and say, “Is this the same man who caused great fear on earth,
who shook the kingdoms,
17who turned the world into a desert,
who destroyed its cities,
who captured people in war
and would not let them go home?”
18Every king of the earth has been buried with honor,
each in his own grave.
19But you are thrown out of your grave,
like an unwanted branch.
You are covered by bodies
that died in battle,
by bodies to be buried in a rocky pit.
You are like a dead body other soldiers walk on.
20You will not be buried with those bodies,
because you ruined your own country
and killed your own people.
The children of evil people
will never be mentioned again.
21Prepare to kill his children,
because their father is guilty.
They will never again take control of the earth;
they will never again fill the world with their cities.
22The Lord All-Powerful says this:
“I will fight against those people;
I will destroy Babylon and its people,
its children and their descendants,” says the Lord.
23“I will make Babylon fit only for owls
and for swamps.
I will sweep Babylon as with a broom of destruction,”
says the Lord All-Powerful.
God Will Punish Assyria
24The Lord All-Powerful has made this promise:
“These things will happen exactly as I planned them;
they will happen exactly as I set them up.
25I will destroy the king of Assyria in my country;
I will trample him on my mountains.
He placed a heavy load on my people,
but that weight will be removed.
26“This is what I plan to do for all the earth.
And this is the hand that I have raised over all nations.”
27When the Lord All-Powerful makes a plan,
no one can stop it.
When the Lord raises his hand to punish people,
no one can stop it.
God’s Message to Philistia
28This message was given in the year that King Ahaz died:
29Country of Philistia, don’t be happy
that the king who struck you is now dead.
He is like a snake that will give birth to another dangerous snake.
The new king will be like a quick, dangerous snake to bite you.
30Even the poorest of my people will be able to eat safely,
and people in need will be able to lie down in safety.
But I will kill your family with hunger,
and all your people who are left will die.
31People near the city gates, cry out!
Philistines, be frightened,
because a cloud of dust comes from the north.
It is an army, full of men ready to fight.
32What shall we tell the messengers from Philistia?
Say that the Lord has made Jerusalem strong
and that his poor people will go there for safety.
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Isaiah 14: NCV
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The Holy Bible, New Century Version, Copyright © 2005 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 14
14
The Restoration of Jacob
1 #
Ps. 102:13; Zech. 1:17 For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and #2 Chr. 36:22, 23 will set them in their own land, and #Zech. 8:22, 23; See Eph. 2:12-14sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2And #ch. 49:22; 60:9; 66:20 the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord’s land #ch. 61:5 as male and female slaves.#14:2 Or servants #[Joel 3:8] They will take captive those who were their captors, #ch. 60:14and rule over those who oppressed them.
Israel’s Remnant Taunts Babylon
3When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4you will take up this #Mic. 2:4; Hab. 2:6 taunt against the king of Babylon:
“How the oppressor has ceased,
# [Jer. 51:13; Rev. 18:16] the insolent fury#14:4 Dead Sea Scroll (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate); the meaning of the word in the Masoretic Text is uncertain ceased!
5The Lord has broken the #[ch. 9:4]staff of the wicked,
the #[ch. 9:4]scepter of rulers,
6 # [Jer. 50:23] that struck the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.
7The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
# ch. 44:23; 49:13; 54:1; 55:12 they break forth into singing.
8 # [Ezek. 31:16] # [ch. 37:24] The cypresses rejoice at you,
# See ch. 2:13 the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low,
no woodcutter comes up against us.’
9Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
10 # [Jer. 51:48] All of them will answer
and say to you:
‘You too have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!’
11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
the sound of your harps;
maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,
and worms are your covers.
12“How #[ch. 24:21; 34:3] you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, #[Job 38:7]son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13You said in your heart,
#
Jer. 51:53; Amos 9:2; [Matt. 11:23; Luke 10:15] ‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
#
Dan. 5:22, 23; [2 Thess. 2:4] I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;#14:13 Or in the remote parts of Zaphon
14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 #
Ezek. 32:23; Matt. 11:23; Luke 10:15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
16Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
‘Is this #[Jer. 50:23]the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
# [Jer. 50:33] who did not let his prisoners go home?’
18All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb;#14:18 Hebrew house
19but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like a loathed branch,
# [Ezek. 32:20] clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit,
like a dead body trampled underfoot.
20You will not be joined with them in burial,
because you have destroyed your land,
you have slain your people.
“May #Job 18:19; Ps. 21:10; 109:13the offspring of evildoers
nevermore be named!
21Prepare slaughter for his sons
# [Ex. 20:5; Matt. 23:35] because of the guilt of their fathers,
lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the face of the world with cities.”
22“I will rise up against them,” declares the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and #[Jer. 51:50, 62] remnant, #Job 18:19; [Gen. 21:23]descendants and posterity,” declares the Lord. 23“And I will make it a possession of the #ch. 34:11; Zeph. 2:14hedgehog,#14:23 Possibly porcupine, or owl and pools of water, and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares the Lord of hosts.
An Oracle Concerning Assyria
24The Lord of hosts has sworn:
# [Prov. 19:21] “As I have planned,
so shall it be,
and as I have purposed,
so shall it stand,
25that #ch. 37:36 I will break the Assyrian in my land,
and on my mountains trample him underfoot;
and #ch. 9:4; 10:27his yoke shall depart from them,
and #ch. 9:4; 10:27his burden from their shoulder.”
26This is the purpose that is purposed
concerning the whole earth,
and this is #[Deut. 4:34]the hand that is stretched out
over all the nations.
27 #
2 Chr. 20:6; Job 9:12; Ps. 33:11; Prov. 21:30; Dan. 4:31, 33, 35 For the Lord of hosts has purposed,
and who will annul it?
# [See ver. 26 above] His hand is stretched out,
and who will turn it back?
An Oracle Concerning Philistia
28In the year that #2 Kgs. 16:20 King Ahaz died came this #See ch. 13:1oracle:
29Rejoice not, #Ex. 15:14; [Ps. 60:8; 87:4; 108:9] O Philistia, all of you,
that #[ch. 10:24] the rod that struck you is broken,
for from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder,
and its fruit will be a #ch. 30:6; Num. 21:6; [Jer. 46:22]flying fiery serpent.
30And the firstborn of #[ch. 29:19; Zeph. 3:12]the poor will graze,
and #[ch. 29:19; Zeph. 3:12]the needy lie down in safety;
but I will kill your root with famine,
and your remnant it will slay.
31 # ch. 13:6 Wail, O #ch. 24:12 gate; cry out, O city;
melt in fear, #[See ver. 29 above] O Philistia, all of you!
# [ch. 20:1] For smoke comes out of the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32What will one answer the messengers of the nation?
#
Ps. 87:1, 5; 102:16; 132:13; [ch. 28:16] “The Lord has founded Zion,
and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”
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