1Because יהוה has compassion on Ya‛aqoḇ, and shall again choose Yisra’ĕla, and give them rest in their own land. And the strangers shall join them, and they shall cling to the house of Ya‛aqoḇb.

2And peoples shall take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Yisra’ĕl shall possess them for servants and female servants in the land of יהוה. And they shall make captives of their captors, and rule over their oppressors.

3And it shall be, in the day יהוה gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble and the hard service in which you were made to serve,

4that you shall take up this proverb against the sovereign of Baḇel, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased, the gold-gatherer ceased!

5“יהוה has broken the staff of the wrong, the sceptre of the rulers,

6he who smote the people in wrath with ceaseless blows, he who ruled the gentiles in displeasure, is persecuted and no one restrains.

7“All the earth is at rest and at peace, they shall break forth into singing.

8“Even the cypress trees rejoice over you, and the cedars of Leḇanon, saying, ‘Since you were cut down, no woodcutter has come up against us.’

9“The grave from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the sovereigns of the gentiles.

10“All of them respond and say to you, ‘Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us?

11‘Your arrogance has been brought down to the grave, and the sound of your stringed instruments; the maggot is spread under you, and worms cover you.’

12“How you have fallen from the heavens, O Hĕlĕl, son of the morning! You have been cut down to the ground, you who laid low the gentiles!

13“For you have said in your heart, ‘Let me go up to the heavens, let me raise my throne above the stars of Ěl, and let me sit in the mount of meeting on the sides of the north;

14let me go up above the heights of the clouds, let me be like the Most High.’

15“But you are brought down to the grave, to the sides of the Pit.

16“Those who see you stare at you, and ponder over you, saying, ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook reigns,

17who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who would not open the house of his prisoners?’

18“All the sovereigns of the gentiles, all of them, were laid in esteem, everyone in his own house;

19but you have been thrown from your grave like an abominable branch, like the garment of those who are slain, thrust through with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a trampled corpse.

20“You are not joined with them in burial, for you have destroyed your land and slain your people. Let the seed of evil-doers never be mentioned.

21“Prepare his children for slaughter, because of the crookedness of their fathers, lest they rise up and possess the land, and fill the face of the world with cities.”

22“And I shall rise up against them,” declares יהוה of hosts, “and shall cut off from Baḇel the name and remnant, and offspring and descendant,” declares יהוה.

23“And I shall make it a possession for the porcupine, and marshes of muddy water; and shall sweep it with the broom of destruction,” declares יהוה of hosts.

24יהוה of hosts has sworn, saying, “Truly, as I have planned, so shall it be; and as I have purposed, so it stands:

25“To break Ashshur in My land, and tread him down on My mountains. And his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden removed from their shoulders.

26“This is the counsel that is counselled for all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

27“For יהוה of hosts has counselled, and who annuls it? And His hand that is stretched out, who turns it back?”

28This is the message which came in the year that Sovereign Aḥaz died:

29“Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, that the rod that smote you is broken; for out of the serpent’s roots comes forth an adder, and its offspring is a fiery flying serpent.

30“And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy lie down in safety. And I shall kill your roots with scarcity of food, and it shall slay your remnant.

31“Howl, O gate! Cry, O city! Melt away, all you of Philistia! For smoke shall come from the north, and there is no stranger in his ranks.”

32And what does one answer the messengers of a nation? “That יהוה has founded Tsiyon, and the poor of His people take refuge in it.”