1
For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob.
2
Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.
3
It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve,
4
that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: "How the oppressor has ceased, The golden city ceased!
5
The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, The scepter of the rulers;
6
He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke, He who ruled the nations in anger, Is persecuted and no one hinders.
7
The whole earth is at rest and quiet; They break forth into singing.
8
Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you, And the cedars of Lebanon, Saying, 'Since you were cut down, No woodsman has come up against us.'
9
"Hell from beneath is excited about you, To meet you at your coming; It stirs up the dead for you, All the chief ones of the earth; It has raised up from their thrones All the kings of the nations.
10
They all shall speak and say to you: 'Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us?
11
Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, And the sound of your stringed instruments; The maggot is spread under you, And worms cover you.'