The king of Babylon will be killed

3 Some day Yahweh will free you Israeli people from suffering and trouble and from being afraid, and from being cruelly treated as slaves [MTY]. 4 When that happens, you will make fun of the King of Babylon by saying this:

“You treated us cruelly, but that has ended!

Your insolently causing others to suffer is finished!

5 You evil ruler, Yahweh will get rid of your power,

and you will oppress people no longer!

6 You attacked people many times

because you were very angry with them,

and you subdued/conquered other nations

by causing them to suffer endlessly.

7 But soon everything will be quiet and peaceful on the earth.

Everyone [PRS] will sing again!

8 It will be as though even the trees in the forests will joyfully sing this song,

the cyprus/pine trees and the cedar trees in Lebanon will sing it:

‘You ◄have been overthrown/are no longer a ruler►,

and now no one comes to get rid of us [MET].’

9 The dead people are [PRS] are eagerly waiting for you to come to the place where they are.

The spirits of the world leaders

will be delighted to welcome you;

those who were kings of many nations before they died

will stand up to welcome you.

10 They will all shout to you together,

‘Now you are as weak as we are!’

11 You were very proud and powerful,

but all that ended when you died,

along with the sounds of harps being played in your palace.

Now in your grave maggots will be under you like a sheet [MET],

and worms will cover you like a blanket [MET].

12 You have disappeared from the earth like [MET] a star which has fallen from the sky;

you were very well-known

like [MET] the morning star which is seen by everyone;

you destroyed many nations,

but now you have been destroyed.

13 You proudly said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven, to my throne above God’s stars.

I will rule on the mountain where the gods gather together, far in the north.

14 I will ascend above the clouds and become like the highest/greatest god!’

15 But you were not able to do that;

instead, you were carried down to your grave,

and you went to the place where the dead people are.

16 The other dead people there stare at you;

they wonder what happened to you.

They say, ‘Is this the man who caused the earth to shake

and caused the people in many kingdoms to tremble?

17 Is this the man who tried to cause the world to become a desert,

who conquered its cities and did not allow the people whom he captured to return to their homes?’

18 All the kings of the earth who have died were greatly honored when they were buried,

19 but your corpse will not be buried;

it will be thrown away like [SIM] a worthless branch of a tree.

Your corpse will be under a heap of other corpses of soldiers that were killed by their enemies’ swords,

and their corpses were not buried;

you will be with those who have gone down to the stony ground in a big pit.

20 Your corpse will not be buried

because you have destroyed your nation

and have caused your people to be killed.

The descendants of wicked people like you will never be honored again.

21 People will say, ‘Slaughter this man’s children

because of the sins that their ancestors committed!

Do not allow them to become rulers and conquer all the nations in the world,

and fill the world with the cities that they rule!’ ”

22 This is what the Commander of the armies of angels says:

“I myself will cause Babylon to be conquered.

I will get rid of Babylon and its people and their descendants.

23 I will cause Babylon to be a place where owls live,

a place full of swamps;

I will get rid of it completely

as though [MET] I were sweeping it with a broom.

That is what I, the Commander of the armies of angels, say.”