Restoration for Israel

¹For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.

²The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland.Then the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.

The Fall of the King of Babylon

³On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced,

⁴you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon:How the oppressor has ceased,and how his furyhas ended!

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

⁶It struck the peoples in angerwith unceasing blows;it subdued the nations in ragewith relentless persecution.

⁷All the earth is at peace and at rest;they break out in song.

⁸Even the cypressesand cedars of Lebanonexult over you:“Since you have been laid low,no woodcutter comes against us.”

⁹Sheol beneath is eagerto meet you upon your arrival.It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth.It makes all the kings of the nationsrise from their thrones.

¹⁰They will all respond to you, saying,“You too have become weak, as we are;you have become like us!”

¹¹Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol,along with the music of your harps.Maggots are your bedand worms your blanket.

¹²How you have fallen from heaven,O day star,son of the dawn!You have been cut down to the ground,O destroyer of nations.

¹³You said in your heart:“I will ascend to the heavens;I will raise my throneabove the stars of God.I will sit on the mount of assembly,in the far reaches of the north.

¹⁴I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;I will make myself like the Most High.”

¹⁵But you will be brought down to Sheol,to the lowest depths of the Pit.

¹⁶Those who see you will stare;they will ponder your fate:“Is this the man who shook the earthand made the kingdoms tremble,

¹⁷who turned the world into a desertand destroyed its cities,who refused to let the captivesreturn to their homes?”

¹⁸All the kings of the nations lie in state,each in his own tomb.

¹⁹But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch,covered by those slain with the sword,and dumped into a rocky pitlike a carcass trampled underfoot.

²⁰You will not join them in burial,since you have destroyed your landand slaughtered your own people.The offspring of the wickedwill never again be mentioned.

²¹Prepare a place to slaughter his sonsfor the iniquities of their forefathers.They will never rise up to possess a landor cover the earth with their cities.

²²“I will rise up against them,”declares the LORD of Hosts.“I will cut off from Babylonher name and her remnant,her offspring and her posterity,”declares the LORD.

²³“I will make her a placefor owls and for swamplands;I will sweep her awaywith the broom of destruction,”declares the LORD of Hosts.

God’s Purpose against Assyria

²⁴The LORD of Hosts has sworn:“Surely, as I have planned, so will it be;as I have purposed, so will it stand.

²⁵I will break Assyria in My land;I will trample him on My mountain.His yoke will be taken off My people,and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

²⁶This is the plan devised for the whole earth,and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.

²⁷The LORD of Hosts has purposed,and who can thwart Him?His hand is outstretched,so who can turn it back?

Philistia Will Be Destroyed

²⁸In the year that King Ahaz died, this burden was received:

²⁹Do not rejoice, all you Philistines,that the rod that struck you is broken.For a viper will spring from the root of the snake,and a flying serpent from its egg.

³⁰Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture,and the needy will lie down in safety,but I will kill your root by famine,and your remnant will be slain.

³¹Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city!Melt away, all you Philistines!For a cloud of smoke comes from the north,and there are no stragglers in its ranks.

³²What answer will be givento the envoys of that nation?“The LORD has founded Zion,where His afflicted people will find refuge.”

The Burden against Tyre

¹This is the burden against Tyre:Wail, O ships of Tarshish,for Tyre is laid waste,without house or harbor.Word has reached themfrom the land of Cyprus.

²Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland,you merchants of Sidon,whose traders have crossed the sea.

³On the great waterscame the grain of Shihor;the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre;she was the merchant of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, the stronghold of the sea,for the sea has spoken:“I have not been in laboror given birth.I have not raised young menor brought up young women.”

⁵When the report reaches Egypt,they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish;wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!

⁷Is this your jubilant city,whose origin is from antiquity,whose feet have taken herto settle far away?

⁸Who planned this against Tyre,the bestower of crowns,whose traders are princes,whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

⁹The LORD of Hosts planned it,to defile all its glorious beauty,to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

¹⁰Cultivateyour land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish;there is no longer a harbor.

¹¹The LORD has stretched out His hand over the sea;He has made kingdoms tremble.He has given a commandthat the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed.

¹²He said, “You shall rejoice no more,O oppressed Virgin Daughter of Sidon.Get up and cross over to Cyprus—even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Look at the land of the Chaldeans—a people now of no account.The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures;they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces.They brought it to ruin.

¹⁴Wail, O ships of Tarshish,for your harbor has been destroyed!

¹⁵At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years—the span of a king’s life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

¹⁶“Take up your harp,stroll through the city,O forgotten harlot.Make sweet melody,sing many a song,so you will be remembered.”

¹⁷And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

¹⁸Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.

Woe to David’s City

¹Woe to you, O Ariel,the city of Ariel where David camped!Year upon yearlet your festivals recur.

²And I will constrain Ariel,and there will be mourning and lamentation;she will be like an altar hearthbefore Me.

³I will camp in a circle around you;I will besiege you with towersand set up siege works against you.

⁴You will be brought low,you will speak from the ground,and out of the dustyour words will be muffled.Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground;your speech will whisper out of the dust.

⁵But your many foes will be like fine dust,the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff.Then suddenly, in an instant,

⁶you will be visited by the LORD of Hostswith thunder and earthquake and loud noise,with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire.

⁷All the many nationsgoing out to battle against Ariel—even all who war against her,laying siege and attacking her—will be like a dream,like a vision in the night,

⁸as when a hungry man dreams he is eating,then awakens still hungry;as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking,then awakens faint and parched.So will it be for all the many nationswho go to battle against Mount Zion.

⁹Stop and be astonished;blind yourselves and be sightless;be drunk, but not with wine;stagger, but not from strong drink.

¹⁰For the LORD has poured out on youa spirit of deep sleep.He has shut your eyes, O prophets;He has covered your heads, O seers.

¹¹And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.”

¹²Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot read.”

¹³Therefore the Lord said:“These people draw near to Me with their mouthsand honor Me with their lips,but their hearts are far from Me.Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

¹⁴Therefore I will again confound these peoplewith wonder upon wonder.The wisdom of the wise will vanish,and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”

¹⁵Woe to those who dig deepto hide their plans from the LORD.In darkness they do their works and say,“Who sees us, and who will know?”

¹⁶You have turned things upside down,as if the potter were regarded as clay.Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,“He did not make me”?Can the pottery say of the potter,“He has no understanding”?

Sanctification for the Godly

¹⁷In a very short time,will not Lebanon become an orchard,and the orchard seem like a forest?

¹⁸On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

¹⁹The humble will increase their joy in the LORD,and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

²⁰For the ruthless will vanish,the mockers will disappear,and all who look for evilwill be cut down—

²¹those who indict a man with a word,who ensnare the mediator at the gate,and who with false chargesdeprive the innocent of justice.

²²Therefore the LORD who redeemed Abraham says of the house of Jacob:“No longer will Jacob be ashamedand no more will his face grow pale.

²³For when he sees his children around him,the work of My hands,they will honor My name,they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,and they will stand in aweof the God of Israel.

²⁴Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding,and those who grumble will accept instruction.”

The Cords of the Wicked

¹Many a time they have persecuted me from my youth—let Israel now declare—

²many a time they have persecuted me from my youth,but they have not prevailed against me.

³The plowmen plowed over my back;they made their furrows long.

⁴The LORD is righteous;He has cut me from the cords of the wicked.

⁵May all who hate Zionbe turned back in shame.

⁶May they be like grass on the rooftops,which withers before it can grow,

⁷unable to fill the hands of the reaper,or the arms of the binder of sheaves.

⁸May none who pass by say to them,“The blessing of the LORD be on you;we bless you in the name of the LORD.”