Study Desk

And it shall be, in the day that Jehovah shall give you rest from your sorrow, and from your trouble, and from the hard bondage which was pressed on you,

you shall lift up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: How the exacter, the gold gatherer, has ceased!

Jehovah has broken the rod of the wicked, the staff of rulers,

who struck the peoples in wrath, a blow without turning away, ruling the nations in anger, dealing out persecution without restraint.

All the earth is at rest, quiet; they break forth into singing.

Yea, the fir trees rejoice over you; the cedars of Lebanon say , Since you have lain down, no one hewing will come up against us.

Sheol from below is stirred for you, to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the departed spirits for you, all the he goats of the earth. It has raised all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

All of them shall answer and say to you, Are you also made as weak as we? Are you likened to us?

Your majesty is lowered into Sheol; the noise of your harps. The maggot is spread under you; yea, the worms cover you.

Oh shining star, son of the morning, how you have fallen from the heavens! You weakening the nations, you are cut down to the ground.

For you have said In your heart, I will go up to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit in the mount of meeting, in the sides of the north.

I will rise over the heights of the clouds; I will be compared to the Most High.

Yet you shall go down to Sheol, to the sides of the Pit.

They that see you shall stare and closely watch you, saying , Is this the man who made the earth tremble, shaking kingdoms,

making the world like a wilderness, and who tore down its cities; he did not open a house for his prisoners?

All kings of nations, all of them lie in glory, each man in his house.

But you are thrown from your grave like a despised branch, like the covering of the slain, those pierced by the sword, those who go down into the stones of the Pit, like a dead body trampled under foot.

You shall not be united with them in burial, because you ruined your land; you have slain your people; the seed of evildoers shall never be named.

Prepare for the slaughter of his sons, for the iniquity of their fathers; that they may not rise and possess the land and fill the face of the earth with cities.

For I will rise against them, says Jehovah of Hosts, and I will cut off the name and remnant, the son and grandson, from Babylon, declares Jehovah.

Also I will make it a possession of the hedgehog and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the broom of ruin, says Jehovah of Hosts.