Passage

Isaiah 14.1

Book: Isaiah · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. For Jehovah will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the sojourner shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

And the peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of Jehovah for servants and for handmaids: and they shall take them captive whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. 3. And it shall come to pass in the day that Jehovah shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy trouble, and from the hard service wherein thou wast made to serve, (Isaiah 14:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land. The foreigner will join himself with them, and they will unite with the house of Jacob.

The peoples will take them, and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in Yahweh’s land for servants and for handmaids. They will take as captives those whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. 3. It will happen in the day that Yahweh will give you rest from your sorrow, from your trouble, and from the hard service in which you were made to serve, (Isaiah 14:1-3, WEB)

KJV

1. For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. ^{whose: Heb. that had taken them captives} 3. And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, (Isaiah 14:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. Because Jehovah loveth Jacob, And hath fixed again on Israel, And given them rest on their own land, And joined hath been the sojourner to them, And they have been admitted to the house of Jacob.

And peoples have taken them, And have brought them in unto their place, And the house of Israel have inherited them, On the land of Jehovah, For men-servants and for maid-servants, And they have been captors of their captors, And have ruled over their exactors. 3. And it hath come to pass, In the day of Jehovah's giving rest to thee, From thy grief, and from thy trouble, And from the sharp bondage, That hath been served upon thee, (Isaiah 14:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the LORD, through the prophet
Audience: Judah and Jerusalem
Location: Jerusalem
Time period: the eighth century BC, under Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah

Theological reading

The LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel and set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

The verse pairs restoration with inclusion, and the second half is the notable part. The word for the sojourner is ger, the resident alien, and the verb of attachment is the one used of covenant joining.

So the promise of return is not a promise of ethnic sealing. Foreigners are described as joining themselves to Jacob within the same sentence that promises the land, which anticipates the fuller statement at Isaiah 56:6 and stands behind the argument that Gentile inclusion is a strand within Israel's own Scriptures rather than a Christian imposition. See Jeremiah 31 New Covenant Objection Defeater.

"Again choose" is also worth noting: election is spoken of as renewable, which fits the book's larger movement from judgment to restoration.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Isaiah 14 Reverse Slavery Prophecy Objection Defeater

Concepts:

Passages:

Isaiah 14.2

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.