1For YHWH will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them upon their ground (adamah); and the stranger shall join himself to them, and they shall attach to the house of Jacob.
2And peoples shall take them and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them upon the ground (adamah) of YHWH for menservants and for maidservants; and they shall be captors of their captors, and rule over their oppressors.
3And it shall come to pass, in the day that YHWH gives you rest from your pain and from your turmoil and from the hard service (avodah) wherein you were made to serve (avad),
4that you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: How has the oppressor shabbatted, the insolent fury shabbatted!
5YHWH has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers,
6smiting peoples in fury with an unceasing stroke, ruling nations in anger, with persecution unrestrained.
7The whole earth is at rest, is quiet; they break forth in song.
8Even the cypresses rejoice over you, the cedars of Lebanon: "Since you were laid low, no feller comes up against us."
9Sheol beneath is stirred for you, to meet your coming; it rouses for you the shades, all the chief ones of the earth; it raises from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10All of them shall answer and say to you: "You also have become weak as we; you have become like us."
11Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; beneath you the maggot is spread, and worms cover you.
12How you have fallen from heaven, shining one (Helel), son of the dawn! You are cut down to the earth, you who laid low the nations!
13And you said in your heart: "I will ascend to the heavens, above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit on the mountain of appointed time (moed), in the uttermost parts of the north.
14I will ascend above the heights of the cloud; I will make myself like the Most High (Elyon)."
15But you are brought down to Sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit.
16Those who see you stare at you, they consider you: "Is this the man (ish) who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,
17who made the world like the wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not release his prisoners homeward?"
18All the kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory, each man (ish) in his own house.
19But you are cast out from your grave like a despised branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a trampled corpse.
20You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you destroyed your land, you slew your people; the seed of evildoers shall not be named forever.
21Prepare slaughter for his sons for the iniquity of their fathers; that they not rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.
22And I will rise up against them, declares YHWH of hosts (tzevaot), and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, offshoot and offspring, declares YHWH.
23And I will make it a possession for the hedgehog, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, declares YHWH of hosts (tzevaot).
24YHWH of hosts (tzevaot) has sworn, saying: Surely as I have devised, so it shall be, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand:
25to break Asshur in my land, and upon my mountains I will tread him; and his yoke shall depart from upon them, and his burden depart from upon their shoulder.
26This is the purpose purposed upon all the earth, and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations.
27For YHWH of hosts (tzevaot) has purposed, and who shall annul it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
28In the year of the death of king Ahaz was this burden:
29Rejoice not, all of you, O Philistia, that the rod that smote you is broken; for from the root of the serpent shall come forth a viper, and its fruit a flying fiery-serpent.
30And the firstborn of the poor shall graze, and the needy shall lie down in safety; but I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant it shall slay.
31Howl, O gate; cry out, O city; you are melted away, all of you, O Philistia; for from the north a smoke comes, and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32And what shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That YHWH has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people shall take refuge.