Second Nephi — Chapter 24
(See Isaiah 14)
1 The Lord will have mercy on Israel and let them live in their own land. People will come to live with them and join the House of Jacob.
2 The nations will take them and bring them to their place, even from far places to the ends of the earth, and they will go back to their lands of promise. The House of Israel will own those lands, and the Lord’s land will be for all servants. They will make slaves of those who had made them slaves, and they will rule over their rulers.
3 Then the Lord will let you rest from your sadness and fear, and from the slavery that made you work so hard.
4 At that time you will say this about the king of Babylon: “Look at how the tyrant is gone, and how the golden city has been destroyed!
5 “The Lord has broken the rods and the scepters of the wicked people who ruled.
6 “Those who beat the people and ruled the nations in anger are no more.
7 “Now all the earth is at rest and at peace and beginning to sing with joy.
8 “The fir trees are happy about what has happened to you, and so are the cedar trees of Lebanon, who say: ‘Ever since you were overthrown, no one has come to cut us down.’
9 “Hell is rising up from below to meet you when you come. It is waking up all the great ones of the earth (who are dead) to greet you. It has raised up all the kings of the nations from their thrones.
10 “All of them will say to you: ‘Have you become as weak as we are? Have you become just like us?’
11 “All your earthly glory goes with you into the grave. There is no more music for you. Worms are all over you, eating you up.
12 “O, how you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! You have been cut down to the ground, you who made the nations weak!
13 “You said in your heart: ‘I will rise up in heaven. I will make my throne higher than God’s. I will sit in the best place among the people.
14 “‘I will be higher than the highest clouds. I will be like God himself.’
15 “But instead, you have gone down to the lowest pits of hell.
16 “All who see you carefully look at you, and think about you, and say: ‘Is this the one who made the earth shake, and who shook the kingdoms?
17 “‘Is this the one who made the world a desert place, and destroyed its cities, and would not let his slaves go free?’
18 “All the kings of the nations — yes, all of them, lie in glory in their own houses.
19 “But you are thrown out of your grave like some disgusting thing. You are like what is left of the bodies of those who are killed by the sword, and put into a stony pit, and walked over.
20 “You will not be buried with them [the kings], because you destroyed your own land and killed your own people. Your children will never be great.”
21 [The Lord of Hosts says:] “Prepare to kill the children for the sins of their parents, so they will not rise, nor own the land, nor build cities all over the world,
22 “Because I will come against them, and cut off the name, and the son and daughter, and the niece and nephew from Babylon.
23 “I will make it a home for birds, a swamp of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction.”
24 The Lord of Hosts has promised: “The things I have thought and the things I plan to do will happen.
25 “So I will bring the Assyrian into my land and walk all over him on my mountains. Then the chain he put on them will be broken, and the burden he made them carry on their shoulders will be gone.”
26 This is the plan for the whole earth. This is the power that will work on all nations.
27 The Lord of Hosts has planned it, and who can stop it? His hand has begun his work, and who will stop him?
28 This is what I saw during the year King Ahaz died.
29 Don’t be happy, Palestine, just because the rod of the one who beat you is broken, because from this snake will come an even worse snake, whose children will be flying snakes of fire.
30 The oldest [children] of the poor will eat, and the poor will sleep safely. I will kill your parents by famine, and he [the snake] will kill the children.
31 Howl, O gate. Cry, O city. You, Palestine, are completely broken. Smoke will come from the north, and no [invader] whom the Lord has chosen will escape from it.
32 Then what will the messengers of the nations say? — That the Lord has built Zion, and the poor among his people will be safe there.
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