40:1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your
14:1 The Lord will certainly have compassion on Jacob;
“Look how the oppressor has met his end!
Hostility
14:5 The Lord has broken the club of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers.
14:6 It
with unceasing blows.
It angrily ruled over nations,
oppressing them without restraint.
14:7 The whole earth rests and is quiet;
they break into song.
14:8 The evergreens also rejoice over your demise,
as do the cedars of Lebanon, singing,
‘Since you fell asleep,
no woodsman comes up to chop us down!’
14:9 Sheol
ready to meet you when you arrive.
It rouses
all the former leaders of the earth;
it makes all the former kings of the nations
rise from their thrones.
14:10 All of them respond to you, saying:
‘You too have become weak like us!
You have become just like us!
14:11 Your splendor
as well as the sound of your stringed instruments.
You lie on a bed of maggots,
with a blanket of worms over you.
14:12 Look how you have fallen from the sky,
O shining one, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the ground,
O conqueror
14:13 You said to yourself,
“I will climb up to the sky.
Above the stars of El
I will set up my throne.
I will rule on the mountain of assembly
on the remote slopes of Zaphon.
14:14 I will climb up to the tops
I will make myself like the Most High!”
14:15 But you were brought down
to the remote slopes of the pit.
14:16 Those who see you stare at you,
they look at you carefully, thinking:
“Is this the man who shook the earth,
the one who made kingdoms tremble?
14:17 Is this the one who made the world like a desert,
who ruined its
and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?”’
14:18
all of them
each in his own tomb.
14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave
like a shoot that is thrown away.
You lie among
among those who have been slashed by the sword,
among those headed for
as if you were a mangled corpse.
14:20 You will not be buried with them,
because you destroyed your land
and killed your people.
The offspring of the wicked
will never be mentioned again.
14:21 Prepare to execute
for the sins their ancestors have committed.
They must not rise up and take possession of the earth,
or fill the surface of the world with cities.”
14:22 “I will rise up against them,”
says the Lord who commands armies.
“I will blot out all remembrance of Babylon and destroy all her people,
including the offspring she produces,”
says the Lord.
14:23 “I will turn her into a place that is overrun with wild animals
and covered with pools of stagnant water.
I will get rid of her, just as one sweeps away dirt with a broom,”
says the Lord who commands armies.
14:24
“Be sure of this:
Just as I have intended, so it will be;
just as I have planned, it will happen.
14:25 I will break Assyria
I will trample them
Their yoke will be removed from my people,
the burden will be lifted from their shoulders.
14:26 This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth;
my hand is ready to strike all the nations.”
14:27 Indeed,
and who can possibly frustrate it?
His hand is ready to strike,
and who can possibly stop it?
14:28 In the year King Ahaz died,
14:29 Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines,
just because the club that beat you has been broken!
For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root,
and its fruit will be a darting adder.
14:30 The poor will graze in my pastures;
the needy will rest securely.
But I will kill your root by famine;
it will put to death all your survivors.
14:31 Wail, O city gate!
Cry out, O city!
Melt with fear,
For out of the north comes a cloud of smoke,
and there are no stragglers in its ranks.
14:32 How will they respond to the messengers of this nation?
Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure;
the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.
18:1 The land of buzzing wings is as good as dead,
the one beyond the rivers of Cush,
18:2 that sends messengers by sea,
who glide over the water’s surface in boats made of papyrus.
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation of tall, smooth-skinned people,
to a people that are feared far and wide,
to a nation strong and victorious,
whose land rivers divide.
18:3 All you who live in the world,
who reside on the earth,
you will see a signal flag raised on the mountains;
you will hear a trumpet being blown.
18:4 For this is what the Lord has told me:
“I will wait
like scorching heat produced by the sunlight,
like a cloud of mist
18:5 For before the harvest, when the bud has sprouted,
and the ripening fruit appears,
he will cut off the unproductive shoots
he will prune the tendrils.
18:6 They will all be left
and the wild animals;
the birds will eat them during the summer,
and all the wild animals will eat them during the winter.
18:7 At that time
tribute will be brought to the Lord who commands armies,
by a people that are tall and smooth-skinned,
a people that are feared far and wide,
a nation strong and victorious,
whose land rivers divide.
The tribute