You crushed the heads of Leviathan (Egypt);
You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.

You broke open fountains and streams;
You dried up ever-flowing rivers.

At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
Both rider and horse were cast into a dead sleep [of death].

He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers
In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided].

“Behold, He struck the rock so that waters gushed out
And the streams overflowed;
Can He give bread also?
Or will He provide meat for His people?”

But He, the source of compassion and lovingkindness, forgave their wickedness and did not destroy them;
Many times He restrained His anger
And did not stir up all His wrath.

He leveled a path for His anger [to give it free run];
He did not spare their souls from death,
But turned over their lives to the plague.

They have given the dead bodies of Your servants as food to the birds of the heavens,
The flesh of Your godly ones to the beasts of the earth.

He established it for a testimony in Joseph
When He went throughout the land of Egypt.
I heard the language [of One whom] I did not know, saying,

Deal with them as [You did] with Midian,
As with Sisera and Jabin at the brook of Kishon,

For my soul is full of troubles,
And my life draws near the grave (Sheol, the place of the dead).

Cast away [from the living] and abandoned among the dead,
Like the slain who lie in a [nameless] grave,
Whom You no longer remember,
And they are cut off from Your hand.

Will You perform wonders for the dead?
Shall the departed spirits arise and praise You? Selah.

Will Your wonders be known in the darkness?
And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness [where the dead forget and are forgotten]?

What man can live and not see death?
Can he rescue his soul from the [powerful] hand of Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead)? Selah.

For He is our God
And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice,

For He looked down from His holy height [of His sanctuary],
From heaven the Lord gazed on the earth,

We have sinned like our fathers;
We have committed iniquity, we have behaved wickedly.

Our fathers in Egypt did not understand nor appreciate Your miracles;
They did not remember the abundance of Your mercies nor imprint Your lovingkindnesses on their hearts,
But they were rebellious at the sea, at the Red Sea.

But they quickly forgot His works;
They did not [patiently] wait for His counsel and purpose [to be revealed regarding them],

They did not destroy the [pagan] peoples [in Canaan],
As the Lord commanded them,

Many times He rescued them;
But they were rebellious in their counsel,
And sank down in their wickedness.

Because the man did not remember to show kindness,
But persecuted the suffering and needy man,
And the brokenhearted, to put them to death.

He will execute judgment [in overwhelming punishment] among the nations;
He will fill them with corpses,
He will crush the chief men over a broad country.

The dead do not praise the Lord,
Nor do any who go down into silence;

The cords and sorrows of death encompassed me,
And the terrors of Sheol came upon me;
I found distress and sorrow.

If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead), behold, You are there.

For You formed my innermost parts;
You knit me [together] in my mother’s womb.

For the enemy has persecuted me,
He has crushed my life down to the ground;
He has made me dwell in dark places, like those who have been long dead.

Let us swallow them alive like Sheol (the place of the dead),
Even whole, as those who go down to the pit [of death];

Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord [that is, obeying Him with reverence and awe-filled respect],

For her house leads down to death
And her paths lead to the dead;

Her feet go down to death;
Her steps take hold of Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),

Her house is the way to Sheol,
Descending to the chambers of death.

But he does not know that the spirits of the dead are there,
And that her guests are [already] in the depths of Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead).

Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) and Abaddon (the abyss, the place of eternal punishment) lie open before the Lord—
How much more the hearts and inner motives of the children of men.

The [chosen] path of life leads upward for the wise,
That he may keep away from Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) below.

A man who wanders from the way of understanding (godly wisdom)
Will remain in the assembly of the dead.

So that your trust and reliance and confidence may be in the Lord,
I have taught these things to you today, even to you.

You shall swat him with the reed-like rod
And rescue his life from Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead).

“They struck me, but I was not hurt!
They beat me, but I did not feel it!
When will I wake up?
I will seek more wine.”

If you [claim ignorance and] say, “See, we did not know this,”
Does He not consider it who weighs and examines the hearts and their motives?
And does He not know it who guards your life and keeps your soul?
And will He not repay [you and] every man according to his works?

Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me;
I will pay the man back for his deed.”

Sheol (the place of the dead) and Abaddon (the underworld) are never satisfied;
Nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.

Sheol, and the barren womb,
Earth that is never satisfied with water,
And fire that never says, “It is enough.”

So I congratulated and thought more fortunate are those who are already dead than the living who are still living.

Even if the other man lives a thousand years twice over and yet has seen no good and experienced no enjoyment—do not both go to one place [the grave]?”

So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out of the holy place [but did not thereby escape their doom], and they are [praised in spite of their evil and] soon forgotten in the city where they did such things. This too is futility (vanity, emptiness).

This evil is in all that is done under the sun, that one fate comes to all. Also, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and afterwards they go to the dead.

[There is no exemption,] but whoever is joined with all the living, has hope; surely a live dog is better than a dead lion.

For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they no longer have a reward [here], for the memory of them is forgotten.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) where you are going.

Dead flies make the oil of the perfumer give off a foul odor; so a little foolishness [in one who is esteemed] outweighs wisdom and honor.

(The Shulammite Bride)“Under the apple tree I awakened you [to my love];
There your mother was in labor with you,
There she was in labor and gave you birth.

“Put me like a seal on your heart,
Like a seal on your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy is as severe and cruel as Sheol (the place of the dead).
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
[A most vehement flame] the very flame of the Lord!

And Jerusalem’s gates will lament (cry out in grief) and mourn [as those who wail for the dead];
And she, being ruined and desolate, will sit upon the ground.

“What more could have been done for My vineyard that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to produce good grapes, why did it yield worthless ones?

Therefore Sheol (the realm of the dead) has increased its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure;
And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her [boisterous] uproar and her [drunken] revelers descend into it.

Therefore the anger of the Lord has burned against His people,
And He has stretched out His hand against them and has struck them down.
And the mountains trembled, and their dead bodies lay like rubbish in the middle of the streets.
In spite of all this God’s anger is not turned away,
But His hand is still stretched out [in judgment].

When the people [instead of trusting God] say to you, “Consult the mediums [who try to talk to the dead] and the soothsayers who chirp and whisper and mutter,” should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

Therefore, the Lord God of hosts says this, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian who strikes you with a rod and lifts up his staff against you, as [the king of] Egypt did.

The Lord of hosts will brandish a whip against them like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the [Red] Sea and He will lift it up the way He did in [the flight from] Egypt.

“Sheol below is excited about you to meet you when you come [you tyrant of Babylon];
It stirs up the spirits of the dead [to greet you], all the leaders of the earth;
It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones [in astonishment at your fall].

‘Your pomp and magnificence have been brought down to Sheol,
Along with the music of your harps;
The maggots [which prey on the dead] are spread out under you [as a bed]
And worms are your covering [Babylonian rulers].’

“But [in fact] you will be brought down to Sheol,
To the remote recesses of the pit (the region of the dead).

“But you [king of Babylon] have been cast out of your tomb (denied burial)
Like a rejected branch,
Clothed with the slain who are pierced by the sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit [into which carcasses are thrown],
Like a dead body trampled [underfoot].

For the fields of Heshbon have languished and withered, and the vines of Sibmah as well;
The lords of the nations have trampled down [Moab’s] choice vine branches,
Which reached as far as Jazer and wandered into the wilderness;
Its tendrils stretched out, they passed over [the shores of] the [Dead] Sea.

They (warriors) will be left together for the mountain birds of prey,
And for the beasts of the earth;
And the birds of prey will [spend the] summer feeding on them,
And all the beasts of the earth will spend harvest time on them.

You also made a reservoir between the two walls
For the waters of the Old Pool,
But you did not look to its Maker,
Nor did you recognize Him who planned it long ago.

‘Listen carefully, the Lord is about to hurl you away violently, O man;
And He is about to grasp you firmly

The [wicked] dead will not live [again], the spirits of the dead will not rise and return;
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And You have wiped out every memory of them [every trace of them].

Your dead will live;
Their dead bodies will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy!
For your dew is a dew of [celestial] light [heavenly, supernatural],
And the earth will give birth to the spirits of the dead.

Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol (the place of the dead) we have made an agreement,
When the overwhelming scourge passes by, it will not reach us,
For we have made lies our refuge and we have concealed ourselves in deception.”

“Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol (the place of the dead) will not stand;
When the overwhelming scourge passes through,
Then you will become its trampling ground.

You turn things upside down [with your perversity]!
Shall the potter be considered equal with the clay,
That the thing that is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”;
Or the thing that is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?

Woe (judgment is coming) to you, O destroyer,
You who were not destroyed,
And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.
As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed;
As soon as you stop dealing treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you.

So their slain will be thrown out,
And the stench of their corpses will rise,
And the mountains will flow with their blood.

And the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the [surviving] men got up early the next morning, they saw all the dead.

I said, “In mid-life
I am to go through the gates of Sheol (the place of the dead),
I am to be summoned, deprived of the remainder of my years.”

“For Sheol cannot praise or thank You,
Death cannot praise You and rejoice in You;
Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

Hezekiah was pleased and showed them his treasure house—the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his entire armory and everything that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his area of dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and asked, “What did these men say? From where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

With whom did He consult and who enlightened Him?
Who taught Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And informed Him of the way of understanding?

Therefore He poured out on Israel the heat of His anger
And the fierceness of battle;
And engulfed him in fire,
Yet he did not recognize [the lesson of repentance which the Assyrian conquest was intended to teach];
It burned him, but he did not take it to heart.

“One will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’;
And another will name himself after Jacob;
And another will write on his hand, ‘I am the Lord’s,’
And be called by the [honorable] name of Israel.

For the Lord, who created the heavens (He is God, who formed the earth and made it; He established it and did not create it to be a wasteland, but formed it to be inhabited) says this,

“I am the Lord, and there is no one else.

“I have not spoken in secret,
In a corner of a land of darkness;
I did not say to the descendants of Jacob,
‘Seek Me in vain [with no benefit for yourselves].’
I, the Lord, speak righteousness [the truth—trustworthy, a straightforward correlation between deeds and words],
Declaring things that are upright.

“Remember [carefully] the former things [which I did] from ages past;
For I am God, and there is no one else;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,

“And you said, ‘I shall be a queen forevermore.’
You did not consider these things,
Nor did you [seriously] remember the [ultimate] outcome of such conduct.

“I have declared the former things [which happened to Israel] in times past;
They went forth from My mouth and I proclaimed them;
Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

“They are created now [called into being by the prophetic word] and not long ago;
And before today you have not heard of them,
So that you will not say, ‘Oh yes! I knew them.’

“Then [Zion], you will say in your heart,
‘Who has borne me these children,
Since I have been bereaved of my children
And am barren, an exile and a wanderer?
And who has reared these?
Indeed, I was left alone;
From where then did these children come?’”

That you have forgotten the Lord your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens
And laid the foundations of the earth,
That you continually tremble with fear all day long because of the rage of the oppressor,
As he takes aim to destroy?
And where is the rage of the oppressor?

He was despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and pain and acquainted with grief;
And like One from whom men hide their faces
He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or esteem Him.

Yet the Lord was willing
To crush Him, causing Him to suffer;
If He would give Himself as a guilt offering [an atonement for sin],
He shall see His [spiritual] offspring,
He shall prolong His days,
And the will (good pleasure) of the Lord shall succeed and prosper in His hand.

“Shout for joy, O barren one, she who has not given birth;
Break forth into joyful shouting and rejoice, she who has not gone into labor [with child]!
For the [spiritual] sons of the desolate one will be more numerous
Than the sons of the married woman,” says the Lord.

“You were wearied by the length of your road,
Yet you did not say, ‘It is no use.’
You found renewed strength,
Therefore you did not grow weak.

“About whom were you worried and fearful
That you lied and did not remember Me,
Nor give Me a thought?
Was I not silent even for a long time
And [as a result] you do not fear Me?

“For I will not contend forever,
Nor will I always be angry;
For [if I did stay angry] the spirit [of man] would grow weak before Me,
And the breath of those whom I have created.

“Yet they seek Me day by day and delight [superficially] to know My ways,
As [if they were in reality] a nation that has done righteousness
And has not abandoned (turned away from) the ordinance of their God.
They ask of Me righteous judgments,
They delight in the nearness of God.

“The facts are that you fast only for strife and brawling and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You do not fast as you do today to make your voice heard on high.