The Fall of the King of Babylon

On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced 4 you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon

How the oppressor has ceased,

and how his fury[fn] has ended!

5 

The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked,

the scepter of the rulers.

6 

It struck the peoples in anger

with unceasing blows;

it subdued the nations in rage

with relentless persecution.

7 

All the earth is at peace and at rest;

they break out in song.

8 

Even the cypresses[fn] and cedars of Lebanon

exult over you:

“Since you have been laid low,

no woodcutter comes against us.”

9 

Sheol beneath is eager

to meet you upon your arrival.

It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—

all the rulers of the earth.

It makes all the kings of the nations

rise from their thrones.

10 

They will all respond to you, saying,

“You too have become weak, as we are;

you have become like us!”

11 

Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol,

along with the music of your harps.

Maggots are your bed

and worms your blanket.

12 

How you have fallen from heaven,

O day star,[fn] son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the ground,

O destroyer of nations.

13 

You said in your heart:

“I will ascend to the heavens;

I will raise my throne

above the stars of God.

I will sit on the mount of assembly,

in the far reaches of the north.[fn]

14 

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”

15 

But you will be brought down to Sheol,

to the lowest depths of the Pit.

16 

Those who see you will stare

they will ponder your fate:

“Is this the man who shook the earth

[and] made the kingdoms tremble,

17 

who turned the world into a desert

and destroyed its cities,

who refused to let the captives

return to their homes?”

18 

All the kings of the nations lie in state,

each in his own tomb.[fn]

19 

But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch,

covered by those slain with the sword,

and dumped into a rocky pit

like a carcass trampled underfoot.

20 

You will not join them in burial,

since you have destroyed your land

and slaughtered your own people.

The offspring of the wicked

will never again be mentioned.

21 

Prepare a place to slaughter his sons

for the iniquities of their forefathers.

They will never rise up to possess a land

or cover the earth with their cities.

22 

“I will rise up against them,”

declares the LORD of Hosts.

“I will cut off from Babylon

her name and her remnant,

her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD.

23 

“I will make her a place

for owls and for swamplands

I will sweep her away

with the broom of destruction,”

declares the LORD of Hosts.

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