The Lord's People Will Come Home
1 The Lord will have mercy on Israel and will let them be his chosen people once again. He will bring them back to their own land, and foreigners will join them as part of Israel. 2 Other nations will lead them home, and Israel will make slaves of them in the land that belongs to the Lord. Israel will rule over those who once governed and mistreated them.
Death to the King of Babylonia!
3 The Lord will set you free from your sorrow, suffering, and slavery. 4 Then you will make fun of the King of Babylonia by singing this song:
That cruel monster is done for!
He won't attack us again.
5 The Lord has crushed the power
of those evil kings,
6 who were furious
and never stopped abusing
the people of other nations.
7 Now all the world is at peace;
its people are celebrating
with joyful songs.
8 King of Babylonia,
even the cypress trees
and the cedars of Lebanon
celebrate and say,
“Since you were put down,
no one comes along
to chop us down.”
9 The world of the dead
eagerly waits for you.
With great excitement,
the spirits of ancient rulers
hear about your coming.
10 Each one of them will say,
“Now you are just as weak
as any of us!
11 Your pride and your music
have ended here
in the world of the dead.
Worms are your blanket,
maggots are your bed.”
12 You, the bright morning star,
have fallen from the sky!
You brought down other nations;
now you are brought down.
13 You said to yourself,
“I'll climb to heaven
and place my throne
above the highest stars.
I'll sit there with the gods
far away in the north.
14 I'll be above the clouds,
just like God Most High.”
15 But now you are deep
in the world of the dead.
16 Those who see you will stare
and wonder, “Is this the man
who made the world tremble
and shook up kingdoms?
17 Did he capture every city
and make earth a desert?
Is he the one who refused
to let prisoners go home?”
18 When kings die, they are buried
in glorious tombs.
19 But you will be left unburied,
just another dead body
lying underfoot
like a broken branch.
You will be one of many
killed in battle and gone down
to the deep rocky pit.
20 You won't be buried with kings;
you ruined your country
and murdered your people.
You evil monster!
We hope that your family
will be forgotten forever.
21 We will slaughter your sons
to make them pay for the crimes
of their ancestors.
They won't take over the world
or build cities
anywhere on this earth.
22 The Lord All-Powerful has promised to attack Babylonia and destroy everyone there, so that none of them will ever be remembered again. 23 The Lord will sweep out the people, and the land will become a swamp for wild animals.
Assyria Will Be Punished
24 The Lord All-Powerful
has made this promise:
Everything I have planned
will happen just as I said.
25 I will wipe out every Assyrian
in my country,
and I will crush those
on my mountains.
I will free my people
from slavery
to the Assyrians.
26 I have planned this
for the whole world,
and my mighty arm
controls every nation.
27 I, the Lord All-Powerful,
have made these plans.
No one can stop me now!
The Philistines Will Be Punished
28 This message came from the Lord in the year King Ahaz died:
29 Philistines, don't be happy
just because the rod
that punished you
is broken.
That rod will become
a poisonous snake, and then
a flying fiery dragon.
30 The poor and needy will find
pastures for their sheep
and will live in safety.
But I will starve some of you,
and others will be killed.
31 Cry and weep in the gates
of your towns,
you Philistines!
Smoke blows in from the north,
and every soldier is ready.
32 If a messenger comes
from a distant nation,
you must say:
“The Lord built Zion.
Even the poorest of his people
will find safety there.”
1 For the Lord wil haue compassion of Iaakob, and wil yet chuse Israel, and cause them to rest in their owne lande: and the stranger shall ioyne him selfe vnto them, and they shall cleaue to the house of Iaakob. 2 And the people shall receiue them and bring them to their owne place, and the house of Israel shall possesse them in the land of the Lord, for seruants and handmaids: and they shall take them prisoners, whose captiues they were, and haue rule ouer their oppressours. 3 And in that day when the Lord shall giue thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy feare, and from the sore bodage, wherein thou didest serue, 4 Then shalt thou take vp this prouerbe against the King of Babel, and say, Howe hath the oppressor ceased? and the gold thirsty Babel rested? 5 The Lord hath broken the rodde of the wicked, and the scepter of the rulers: 6 Which smote the people in anger with a continuall plague, and ruled the nations in wrath: if any were persecuted, he did not let. 7 The whole worlde is at rest and is quiet: they sing for ioye. 8 Also the firre trees reioyced of thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid downe, no hewer came vp against vs. 9 Hel beneath is mooued for thee to meete thee at thy comming, raising vp the deade for thee, euen all the princes of the earth, and hath raised from their thrones all the Kinges of the nations. 10 All they shall crie, and saie vnto thee, Art thou become weake also as we? art thou become like vnto vs? 11 Thy pompe is brought downe to ye graue, and the sounde of thy violes: the worme is spred vnder thee, and the wormes couer thee. 12 How art thou fallen from heauen, O Lucifer, sonne of the morning? and cutte downe to the grounde, which didest cast lottes vpon the nations? 13 Yet thou saidest in thine heart, I will ascende into heauen, and exalt my throne aboue beside the starres of God: I will sitte also vpon the mount of the Congregation in the sides of the North. 14 I wil ascend aboue ye height of the cloudes, and I will be like the most high. 15 But thou shalt bee brought downe to the graue, to the sides of the pit. 16 They that see thee, shall looke vpon thee and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, and that did shake the kingdomes? 17 He made the worlde as a wildernesse, and destroied the cities thereof, and opened not the house of his prisoners. 18 All the Kings of the nations, euen they all sleepe in glorie, euery one in his owne house. 19 But thou art cast out of thy graue like an abominable branch: like the raiment of those that are slaine, and thrust thorowe with a sword, which goe downe to the stones of the pit, as a carkeise troden vnder feete. 20 Thou shalt not be ioyned with them in the graue, because thou hast destroied thine owne lande, and slaine thy people: the seede of the wicked shall not be renoumed for euer. 21 Prepare a slaughter for his children, for the iniquitie of their fathers: let them not rise vp nor possesse the land, nor fil the face of the world with enemies. 22 For I wil rise vp against them (sayth the Lord of hostes) and will cut off from Babel the name and the remnant and the sonne, and the nephew, sayth the Lord: 23 And I wil make it a possession to ye hedgehogge, and pooles of water, and I will sweepe it with the besome of destruction, sayeth the Lord of hostes. 24 The Lord of hostes hath sworne, saying, Surely like as I haue purposed, so shall it come to passe, and as I haue consulted, it shall stand: 25 That I will breake to pieces Asshur in my land, and vpon my mountaines will I treade him vnder foote: so that his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden shall be taken from off their shoulder. 26 This is the counsell that is consulted vpon the whole worlde, and this is the hande stretched out ouer all the nations, 27 Because the Lord of hostes hath determined it, and who shall disanull it? and his hande is stretched out, and who shall turne it away? 28 In the yeere that King Ahaz died, was this burden. 29 Reioyce not, (thou whole Palestina) because the rod of him that did beat thee, is broken for out of the serpents roote shall come forth a cockatrise, and the fruit therof shalbe a firy flying serpent. 30 For the first borne of the poore shall be fed, and the needie shall lie downe in safetie: and I will kill thy roote with famine, and it shall slay thy remnant. 31 Howle, O gate, crie, O citie: thou whole lande of Palestina art dissolued, for there shall come from the North a smoke, and none shalbe alone, at his time appointed. 32 What shall then one answere the messengers of the Gentiles? That the Lord hath stablished Zion, and the poore of his people shall trust in it.