Israel’s Restoration and Victory
The Lord will show mercy to Jacob. He will choose Israel again and settle them back in their own land. Outsiders will join them and become part of Jacob’s family. Nations will bring them home from the far ends of the earth, and they’ll return to the land promised to them. Israel will lead the very nations that once ruled them. The captives will become the captors, and the oppressed will rule their oppressors. When that day comes, the Lord will give you rest—rest from your sorrow, rest from your fear, rest from the crushing slavery you endured.
The Fall of Babylon’s King
Then you’ll mock the king of Babylon: “Look how the tyrant has fallen! Look how the golden empire has crumbled!” The Lord has shattered the power of the wicked. He’s broken the scepters of rulers. The one who beat down the people in fury—strike after relentless strike—the one who ruled nations in rage is now hunted down. And no one lifts a finger to stop it. The whole earth is at peace. It rests. People burst into song. Even the pine trees celebrate. The cedars of Lebanon declare: “Since you’ve been cut down, no axe has come near us.”
The realm of the dead stirs to meet you when you arrive. It wakes the spirits of the dead—all the great leaders of the earth. It raises up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. They all turn and say to you: “So you’ve become as weak as we are? You’ve become just like us?” Your splendor has been dragged down to the grave, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed now. Worms are your blanket.
The Morning Star Cast Down
How you’ve fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the dawn! You’re thrown down to the earth—you who once brought nations to their knees! You said in your heart: “I’ll climb up to heaven. I’ll set my throne above God’s stars. I’ll sit enthroned on the mountain where the gods meet, in the far reaches of the north. I’ll rise above the highest clouds. I’ll make myself like the Most High.” But instead you’re brought down to the realm of the dead, to the deepest part of the pit.
Those who see you stare at you. They study you closely and ask: “Is this the man who made the earth tremble? Who shook kingdoms? Who turned the world into a wasteland and destroyed its cities? Who never let his prisoners go home?” All the kings of nations lie in state. Every one of them rests in his own tomb. But you’re thrown out of your grave like a rejected branch—covered with the bodies of the slain, pierced through with swords, thrown down to the stones of the pit like a corpse trampled underfoot. You won’t be buried with them because you destroyed your own land and slaughtered your own people. The children of evildoers will never be honored. Prepare a place to slaughter his children for the sins of their ancestors. They must not rise to take the land. They must not fill the world with their cities.
God’s Judgment on Babylon
“I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “I’ll cut off from Babylon every trace of it—name and survivor, child and descendant,” says the Lord. “I’ll turn it into a wasteland for owls, nothing but swamps and marshes. I’ll sweep it away with the broom of destruction,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
The Assyrian Will Fall
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has sworn an oath: “As surely as I have planned it, so it will happen. What I’ve decided will stand. I will crush the Assyrian in my land. I’ll trample him on my mountains. Then his yoke will lift from my people, and his burden will fall from their shoulders.” This is the plan determined for the whole earth. This is the hand stretched out over all nations. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has planned it—who can stop it? His hand is stretched out—who can turn it back?
Warning to Philistia
This prophecy came in the year King Ahaz died.
Don’t celebrate, Philistia, just because the rod that struck you is broken. From that snake’s root will come a viper, and its offspring will be a venomous flying serpent. The poorest of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety. But I’ll kill your roots with famine, and what’s left of you will be slaughtered. Wail at the gates! Cry out in the city! Melt in fear, all of Philistia! An army comes from the north like smoke, and not a single soldier breaks rank. What answer will be given to the messengers from that nation? That the Lord has founded Zion, and his suffering people will find refuge there.