1. For Jehovah will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land; and the stranger shall be joined with them, and they shall cling to the house of Jacob.
2. And the peoples shall take them and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for slaves and slave girls. And they shall be captives of their captors; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
3. And it shall be in the day that Jehovah shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage which was pressed on you,
4. you shall take up this song against the king of Babylon and say, How the exacter, the gold gatherer has ceased!
5. Jehovah has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers
6. who struck peoples in wrath, a blow without turning away, ruling the nations in anger, a persecution without restraint.
7. All the earth is at rest and is quiet; they break out into singing.
8. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since you have fallen, no woodcutter will come up against us.
9. Hell from below is moved for you, to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, all the he-goats of the earth. It has raised 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? Are you like us?
11. Your pride is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your harps. The maggot is spread under you, and the worms cover you.
12. How you are fallen from the heavens, O shining star, 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 go up to the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.
14. I will go up above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.
15. Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the Pit.
16. Those who see you shall stare and closely watch you, 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 a hateful branch, and like the clothing of those who are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trampled under foot.
20. You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you ruined your land and killed your people; the seed of evildoers shall never be famous.
21. Prepare slaughter for his sons, because of the iniquity of their fathers, so that they do 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 son, and grandson, says Jehovah.
23. I will also make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the broom of ruin, 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, it shall stand;
25. to break Assyria in My land, and on My mountains, trample him under foot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulders.
26. This is the purpose that is purposed on all the earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations.
27. For Jehovah of Hosts has purposed, and who shall reverse 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, O Philistia, all of you, that the rod of your striking is broken. For a viper comes forth from the root of a snake, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
30. And the first-born 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, and 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 trust in it.