Isaiah 14:7-20 (Vespers, 3rd reading)
- 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.’
- 12
- “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
- 13
- For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north;
- 14
- I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’
- 15
- Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.
- 16
- “Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,
- 17
- who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?’
- 18
- “All the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house;
- 19
- but you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch, like the garment of those who are slain, thrust through with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a corpse trodden underfoot.
- 20
- You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land and slain your people. The brood of evildoers shall never be named.