1For the LORD 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. 2And the people shall take them and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids. And they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

3And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage which was imposed on you,

4You shall take up this song against the king of Babylon and say, "How the oppressor has ceased! How his fury has ceased!

5The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers

6Who struck people in wrath, with unceasing blows, ruling the nations in anger, with an unrelenting persecution.

7All the earth is at rest and is quiet; they break out into singing.

8Yea, the fir trees rejoice at you, the cedars of Lebanon, saying, 'Since you have fallen, no woodcutter will come up against us. '

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

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

11Your pride is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your harps. The maggot is spread under you, and the worms cover you. '

12How 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!

13For you have said in your heart, 'I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.

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

15Yet you shall be brought down to the grave, to the sides of the pit.

16Those who see you shall stare and watch you closely, saying, 'Is this the man who made the earth to tremble; who shook kingdoms;

17Who made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed its cities; who did not allow his prisoners to go free?'

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

19But 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.

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

21Prepare slaughter for his children 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 the LORD of hosts, "and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and children, and grandchildren," says the LORD. 23"I will also make it a possession of the hedgehog, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says the LORD of hosts.

24The LORD 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; 25That I will break Assyria in My land, and upon My mountains, and trample him under foot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulders. 26This is the purpose that is purposed upon all the earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations, 27For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who shall reverse it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?"

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

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

30And 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 survivors.

31Howl, O gate! Cry, O city! Melt away O Philistia, all of you; for from the north a smoke comes, and there is no straggler in his ranks."

32What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and in her shall the afflicted of His people take refuge.