Isaiah 14 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 But the Lord will be merciful to the descendants of Jacob. Once again he will choose Israel and he will bring them back to live once more in their own land. Foreigners will come and join them there, and they will unite with the descendants of Jacob.
1 For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.
2 Nations will go with them and escort them to their own land. The foreigners who stay in the Lord's land will serve the Israelites. In this way the captors become their captives, and they rule over their former oppressors.
2 The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh’s land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
3 At that time the Lord will give you relief from your pain and trouble, and from the hard labor you were forced to do.
3 It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve,
4 You will mock the king of Babylon, saying, “How your oppressive rule has been ended, and your insolence stopped!
4 that you will take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and say, “How the oppressor has ceased! The golden city has ceased!”
5 The Lord has broken the rod of the wicked, the rulers' scepter.
5 Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
6 You kept on furiously hitting foreign peoples without stopping, and aggressively ruled nations with unrestrained persecution.
6 who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained.
7 Now the whole earth rests peacefully, and everyone starts celebrating!
7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet. They break out in song.
8 The cypress and cedar trees are glad you're gone. They sing, ‘Since you were cut down no woodcutters are coming to cut us down!’
8 Yes, the cypress trees rejoice with you, with the cedars of Lebanon, saying, “Since you are humbled, no lumberjack has come up against us.”
9 Those in the grave beneath are keen to meet you when you arrive. It wakes the spirits of the dead to welcome you, those of all the rulers of the earth. All the kings of the nations stand up from their thrones.
9 Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10 They will all speak up and tell you, ‘So you too are as weak as we are—you've become just like us!
10 They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?”
11 Your pride is now buried with you in the grave, along with the harp music you loved. Maggots are the bed you lie on, and worms are your blanket.’
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.
12 Morning star, son of the dawn, how you have fallen from heaven! Destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground!
12 How you have fallen from heaven, shining one, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
13 You said to yourself: ‘I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on the mountain of meeting, the summit of the northern mountain.
13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!
14 I will ascend to the high places above the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!”
15 But you are dragged down to the grave, into the depths of the pit.
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you, examining you closely, asking, ‘Is this the man who shook the earth, who made kingdoms tremble?
16 Those who see you will stare at you. They will ponder you, saying, “Is this the man who made the earth to tremble, who shook kingdoms,
17 Is this the one who turned the world into a desert, destroyed cities, and never let his prisoners return home?’
17 who made the world like a wilderness, and overthrew its cities, who didn’t release his prisoners to their home?”
18 All the other kings of the nations lie in splendor in their great mausoleums.
18 All the kings of the nations sleep in glory, everyone in his own house.
19 But you are thrown out of your grave like a branch nobody wants, buried underneath the bodies of those killed by the sword. You are like a corpse trodden underfoot. You are tossed into a pit full of rocks—
19 But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain who are thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit; like a dead body trodden under foot.
20 you will not be buried like those other kings because you destroyed your own land and killed your own people. The descendants of those who do evil will never survive.
20 You will not join them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have killed your people. The offspring of evildoers will not be named forever.
21 Get ready to execute his sons because of their fathers' sins. Don't let them take over the earth; don't let them fill the whole world with their cities.
21 Prepare for slaughter of his children because of the iniquity of their fathers, that they not rise up and possess the earth, and fill the surface of the world with cities.
22 I will come and attack them, declares the Lord Almighty. I will destroy everything: their reputation, those who remain, their children, and their descendants, says the Lord.
22 “I will rise up against them,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and son and son’s son,” says Yahweh.
23 I will make Babylon into a place for water birds and into marshland. I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction, declares the Lord Almighty.”
23 “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of Armies.
24 The Lord Almighty has sworn an oath: It will be as I have planned. It will happen as I have decided.
24 Yahweh of Armies has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so shall it happen; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
25 I will smash the Assyrians when they are in my country Israel; I will trample them underfoot on my mountains. I will remove their yoke from my people, and take away the burdens they place on my people's shoulders.
25 that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.
26 This is the plan I have made regarding the whole earth; my hand stretches out to control all the nations.
26 This is the plan that is determined for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
27 The Lord Almighty has made his plan, and who will block it? His hand stretches out, and who will push back against it?
27 For Yahweh of Armies has planned, and who can stop it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
28 The following message came in the year King Ahaz died.
28 This burden was in the year that King Ahaz died.
29 All you Philistines, don't celebrate the fact that the rod that was hitting you is broken, because from the root of that snake will grow up a viper, its fruit will be a flying serpent.
29 Don’t rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.
30 The poor will have food, and the needy will live in safety, but you Philistines will die in a famine, and I will kill those who survive.
30 The firstborn of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed.
31 Howl, gates! Weep, town! Melt away in fear, all you Philistines! For a cloud of smoke is approaching from the north—an army with no soldier hanging back.
31 Howl, gate! Cry, city! You are melted away, Philistia, all of you; for smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.
32 What will be the answer given to the messengers from that nation? “The Lord was the one who laid the foundations of Zion, and that's where his suffering people will be kept safe.”
32 What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That Yahweh has founded Zion, and in her the afflicted of his people will take refuge.
Cross references (32)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Psalm 102:13; Zechariah 1:17; Ephesians 2:12–19; Isaiah 54:7–8; Zechariah 8:22–23
- 2 Isaiah 61:5; Isaiah 60:14; Jeremiah 30:16; Daniel 7:25–27; Isaiah 60:9–12
- 3 Jeremiah 30:10; Ezra 9:8–9; Isaiah 32:18; Jeremiah 46:27–28; Zechariah 8:8
- 4 Isaiah 49:26; Jeremiah 50:22–23; Revelation 18:16; Revelation 18:5–8; Revelation 16:5–6
- 5 Psalm 125:3; Isaiah 9:4; Isaiah 14:29; Jeremiah 48:15–17; Isaiah 10:5
- 6 Daniel 7:19–21; Jeremiah 50:31; Revelation 17:16–17; James 2:13; Revelation 18:8–10
- 7 Psalm 126:1–3; Psalm 96:11–13; Isaiah 49:13; Psalm 98:7–9; Proverbs 11:10
- 8 Ezekiel 31:16; Isaiah 55:12–13; Zechariah 11:2
- 9 Ezekiel 32:21–32; Jeremiah 50:8; Proverbs 15:24
- 10 Psalm 82:6–7; Ezekiel 32:21; Ecclesiastes 2:16; Psalm 49:6–14; Psalm 49:20
- 11 Daniel 5:25–30; Ezekiel 32:19–20; Isaiah 21:4–5; Job 17:13–14; Job 21:11–15
- 12 Ezekiel 28:13–17; Luke 10:18; Revelation 12:7–10; Revelation 8:10; Revelation 22:16
- 13 Daniel 8:10–12; Ezekiel 28:2; Ezekiel 28:12–16; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Ezekiel 29:3
- 14 Isaiah 47:8; Genesis 3:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:4; Isaiah 37:23–24
- 15 Matthew 11:23; Acts 12:22–23; Ezekiel 32:23; Revelation 19:20; Luke 10:15
- 16 Jeremiah 50:23; Psalm 58:10–11; Jeremiah 51:20–23; Isaiah 14:4–5; Psalm 52:7
- 17 Joel 2:3; Ezekiel 6:14; Isaiah 58:6; Isaiah 13:19–22; Ezra 1:2–4
- 18 2 Chronicles 24:16; Ezekiel 32:18–32; 2 Chronicles 24:25; Job 30:23; Isaiah 22:16
- 19 Jeremiah 41:9; Jeremiah 41:7; 2 Kings 9:34–36; Jeremiah 22:19; 1 Kings 21:19
- 20 Psalm 21:10; Job 18:19; Psalm 37:28; Psalm 109:13; Job 18:16
- 21 Matthew 23:35; Leviticus 26:39; Habakkuk 2:8–12; Exodus 20:5; Isaiah 27:6
- 22 1 Kings 14:10; Jeremiah 50:29–35; Proverbs 10:7; Isaiah 43:14; Jeremiah 51:62–64
- 23 Zephaniah 2:14; Isaiah 13:21–22; 1 Kings 14:10; Isaiah 34:11–15; Revelation 14:8
- 24 Proverbs 19:21; Job 23:13; Isaiah 46:10–11; Jeremiah 29:11; Acts 4:28
- 25 Isaiah 9:4; Isaiah 37:36–38; Nahum 1:13; Isaiah 10:12; Isaiah 10:32–34
- 26 Isaiah 23:9; Zephaniah 3:6–8; Exodus 15:12; Isaiah 5:25
- 27 Isaiah 43:13; Job 23:13; 2 Chronicles 20:6; Proverbs 21:30; Job 9:12
- 28 2 Kings 16:20; 2 Chronicles 28:27; Isaiah 13:1; Isaiah 6:1
- 29 Isaiah 11:8; 2 Chronicles 26:6; Isaiah 30:6; 2 Chronicles 28:18; Hosea 9:1
- 30 Isaiah 7:21–22; Zephaniah 2:4–7; Isaiah 8:21; Zechariah 9:5–7; Isaiah 30:23–24
- 31 Jeremiah 1:14; Isaiah 20:1; Jeremiah 25:16–20; Isaiah 14:29; Isaiah 13:6
- 32 Psalm 87:5; Psalm 102:16; Psalm 87:1; James 2:5; Zephaniah 3:12
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… loved and feared, not for Thy sake, but in Thy stead, by which means, being made like unto him, he may have them as his, not in harmony of love, but in the fellowship of punishment; who aspired to exalt his throne in the north, that dark and cold they might serve him, imitating Thee in perverse and distorted ways.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
Such an one was he that saith, "I will exalt my throne above the Heavens." and did not account himself to be worthy so much as of the title of the apostles, after so many and so great deeds of goodness.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
And how do they answer the prophetic proofs,--either what Isaiah says when he represents the devil under the person of the king of Babylon, "How art thou fallen, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" or what Ezekiel says, "Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering," where it is meant that he was …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
For example, what is said in Isaiah, "How he is fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning!" and the other statements of the context which, under the figure of the king of Babylon, are made about the same person, are of course to be understood of the devil; and yet the statement which is made in the same place, …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)