Isaiah 14
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 14
Restoration of Israel. 1 But the Lord will take pity on Jacob and again choose Israel, and will settle them on their own land; foreigners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.(A) 2 The nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them[a] as male and female slaves on the Lord’s land; they will take captive their captors and rule over their oppressors.(B)
Downfall of the King of Babylon. 3 On the day when the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow and turmoil, from the hard service with which you served,(C) 4 you will take up this taunt-song[b] against the king of Babylon:(D)
How the oppressor has come to an end!
how the turmoil has ended!
5 The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked,
the staff of the tyrants(E)
6 That struck the peoples in wrath
with relentless blows;
That ruled the nations in anger,
with boundless persecution.(F)
7 The whole earth rests peacefully,
song breaks forth;
8 The very cypresses rejoice over you,
the cedars of Lebanon:
“Now that you are laid to rest,
no one comes to cut us down.”(G)
9 Below, Sheol is all astir
preparing for your coming;
Awakening the shades to greet you,
all the leaders of the earth;
Making all the kings of the nations
rise from their thrones.
10 All of them speak out
and say to you,
“You too have become weak like us,
you are just like us!
11 Down to Sheol your pomp is brought,
the sound of your harps.
Maggots are the couch beneath you,
worms your blanket.”(H)
12 How you have fallen from the heavens,
O Morning Star,[c] son of the dawn!
How you have been cut down to the earth,
you who conquered nations!(I)
13 In your heart you said:
“I will scale the heavens;
Above the stars of God[d]
I will set up my throne;
I will take my seat on the Mount of Assembly,
on the heights of Zaphon.(J)
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will be like the Most High!”(K)
15 No! Down to Sheol you will be brought
to the depths of the pit!(L)
16 When they see you they will stare,
pondering over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms?
17 Who made the world a wilderness,
razed its cities,
and gave captives no release?”
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own tomb;(M)
19 But you are cast forth without burial,
like loathsome carrion,
Covered with the slain, with those struck by the sword,
a trampled corpse,
Going down to the very stones of the pit.(N)
20 You will never be together with them in the grave,
For you have ruined your land,
you have slain your people!
Let him never be named,
that offshoot of evil!
21 Make ready to slaughter his sons
for the guilt of their fathers;(O)
Lest they rise and possess the earth,
and fill the breadth of the world with cities.[e]
22 I will rise up against them, says the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, progeny and offspring, says the Lord.(P) 23 I will make it a haunt of hoot owls and a marshland; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction, oracle of the Lord of hosts.
God’s Plan for Assyria[f]
24 The Lord of hosts has sworn:
As I have resolved,
so shall it be;
As I have planned,
so shall it stand:
25 To break the Assyrian in my land
and trample him on my mountains;
Then his yoke shall be removed from them,
and his burden from their shoulder.(Q)
26 This is the plan proposed for the whole earth,
and this the hand outstretched over all the nations.[g]
27 The Lord of hosts has planned;
who can thwart him?
His hand is stretched out;
who can turn it back?(R)
Philistia.[h] 28 In the year that King Ahaz died,[i] there came this oracle:
29 [j]Do not rejoice, Philistia, not one of you,
that the rod which struck you is broken;
For out of the serpent’s root shall come an adder,
its offspring shall be a flying saraph.
30 In my pastures the poor shall graze,
and the needy lie down in safety;
But I will kill your root with famine
that shall slay even your remnant.
31 Howl, O gate; cry out, O city!
Philistia, all of you melts away!
For there comes a smoke from the north,[k]
without a straggler in its ranks.
32 What will one answer the messengers of the nations?[l]
“The Lord has established Zion,
and in her the afflicted of his people find refuge.”
Footnotes
- 14:2 Possess them: Israel will make slaves of the nations who escort it back to its land.
- 14:4–21 This taunt-song, a satirical funeral lament, is a beautiful example of classical Hebrew poetry. According to the prose introduction and the prosaic conclusion (vv. 22–23), it is directed against the king of Babylon, though Babylon is mentioned nowhere in the song itself. If the reference to Babylon is accurate, the piece was composed long after the time of Isaiah, for Babylon was not a threat to Judah in the eighth century. Some have argued that Isaiah wrote it at the death of an Assyrian king and the references to Babylon were made by a later editor, but this is far from certain.
- 14:12 Morning Star: term addressed to the king of Babylon. The Vulgate translates as “Lucifer,” a name applied by the church Fathers to Satan. Son of the dawn: Heb., ben shahar, may reflect the name of a pagan deity.
- 14:13–15 God: not Elohim, the common word for God, but El, the name of the head of the pantheon in Canaanite mythology, a god who was early identified with the Lord in Israelite thought. Mount of Assembly: mountain where the council of the gods met, according to Canaanite mythology. Zaphon: the sacred mountain of Baal, originally the Jebel el-Aqra north of Ugarit, but other mountains have been identified with it, including Mount Zion in Jerusalem (Ps 48:3). The attempt to usurp the place of God (v. 14), coupled with the dramatic reversal (“above the stars of God” to “the depths of the pit”) occasioned the interpretation that saw here the rebellion and fall of Satan.
- 14:21 Cities: if the text is correct, it presumably refers to cities as expressions of human pride, authority, and oppression (cf. Gn 11:1–9; Na 3:1–4).
- 14:24–27 The motif of God’s plan or work is a recurring thread running through Isaiah’s oracles. The plans of Judah’s enemies will not come to pass (7:5–7; 8:9–10; 10:7), but God’s plan for his work of disciplining his own people (5:12, 19; 28:21), and then for punishing the foreign agents God used to administer that discipline (10:12) will come to pass.
- 14:26 Hand outstretched over all the nations: as it was once outstretched over Israel (9:11, 16, 20; 5:25).
- 14:28–31 This oracle seems to reflect the political situation soon after the death of Ahaz in 715 B.C., when Ashdod and the other Philistine cities were trying to create a united front to rebel against Assyria. Ahaz had refused to join the rebels in 735 B.C. and remained loyal to Assyria during the rest of his reign, but the Philistines may have had higher hopes for his son Hezekiah. Judah, however, did not join in Ashdod’s disastrous revolt in 713–711 B.C. (cf. 20:1).
- 14:28 The year that King Ahaz died: 715 B.C.
- 14:29 The occasion for this oracle is usually taken to be the death of an Assyrian king; the Philistines were vassals of Assyria, whereas no victories of Ahaz over the Philistines are recorded. The chronological notice (in the year that King Ahaz died) may be incorrect, for no Assyrian king died around 715, the date usually assigned for the death of Ahaz. Flying saraph: a winged cobra, often portrayed in Egyptian art and on Israelite seals. The Hebrew saraph means “to burn” and perhaps is applied to the cobra because of the burning sensation of its bite.
- 14:31 Smoke from the north: the dust raised from the approach of the Assyrian army.
- 14:32 Messengers of the nations: envoys from Philistia, and from Egypt and Ethiopia, the real powers behind the Philistine revolt (20:1–6; cf. 18:1–2).
Isaiah 14
Modern English Version
The Restoration of Judah
14 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob,
and will yet choose Israel,
and set them in their own land.
Then the strangers shall be joined with them,
and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
2 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 shall take them captive, whose captives they were,
and they shall rule over their oppressors.
The Fall of Babylon’s King
3 In the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, 4 you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:
How has the oppressor ceased!
The golden city ceased!
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
and the scepter of the rulers;
6 he who struck the people in wrath with unceasing strokes,
he who ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and no one hinders.
7 The whole earth is at rest and is quiet;
they break forth into singing.
8 Indeed, the fir trees rejoice at you,
and the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
“Since you are laid down,
no tree cutter has come up against us.”
9 Hell from beneath is moved for you
to meet you at your coming;
it stirs up the dead for you,
even all the chief ones of the earth;
it has raised up from their thrones
all the kings of the nations.
10 They all shall speak
and say to you:
“Have you also become as weak as we have?
Have you become like us?”
11 Your pomp is brought down to Hell,
and the noise of your harps;
maggots are spread under you,
and the worms cover you.
12 How are you fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who weaken the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart,
“I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit also on the mount of the congregation,
in the recesses of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.”
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Hell,
to the sides of the pit.
16 Those who see you shall stare at you
and ponder over you:
“Is this the man who made the earth
to tremble and shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world as a wilderness
and destroyed its cities,
who did not open the house of his prisoners?”
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory,
each one in his own tomb;
19 but you are cast out of your grave
like an abominable branch
and clothed with those who are slain,
thrust through with a sword,
who go down to the stones of the pit
as a corpse trodden underfoot.
20 You shall not be joined with them in burial
because you have destroyed your land
and slain your people.
The seed of evildoers
shall never be renowned.
21 Prepare a place of slaughter for his children
for the iniquity of their fathers;
they must 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 son, and nephew,
says the Lord.
23 I will also make it a possession for the hedgehog
and pools of water,
and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,
says the Lord of Hosts.
An Oracle Concerning Assyria
24 The Lord of Hosts has sworn, saying:
Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass,
and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 that I will break the Assyrian in My land,
and on My mountains tread him under foot.
Then shall his yoke depart from off them
and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
26 This is the purpose that is purposed on the whole earth,
and this is the hand that is stretched out on all the nations.
27 For the Lord of Hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it?
And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
An Oracle Concerning Philistia
28 In the year that King Ahaz died was this oracle:
29 Rejoice not, O Philistia, all of you,
because the rod that struck you is broken;
for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a viper,
and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
30 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 remnant.
31 Wail, O gate. Cry, O city.
Melt away, O Philistia, all of you;
for smoke shall come from the north,
and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 What shall one then answer
the messengers of the nation?
That the Lord has founded Zion,
and the poor of His people shall trust in it.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.