So Death ¹  will open up its throat, and open wide its mouth; ²  Zion’s dignitaries and masses will descend into it, including those who revel and celebrate within her. ³ 

¹ They will say to you, “Seek oracles at the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, from the magicians who chirp and mutter incantations. ²  Should people not seek oracles from their gods, by asking the dead about the destiny of the living?” ³ 

But you have been thrown out of your grave like a shoot that is thrown away. ¹  You lie among ²  the slain, among those who have been slashed by the sword, among those headed for ³  the stones of the pit, ⁴  as if you were a mangled corpse. ⁵ 

The Egyptians will panic, ¹  and I will confuse their strategy. ²  They will seek guidance from the idols and from the spirits of the dead, from the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, and from the magicians. ³ 

Your treaty with death will be dissolved; ¹  your agreement ²  with Sheol will not last. ³  When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by, ⁴  you will be overrun by it. ⁵ 

“Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. ¹  You delivered me ²  from the pit of oblivion. ³  For you removed all my sins from your sight. ⁴ 

I have not spoken in secret, in some hidden place. ¹  I did not tell Jacob’s descendants, ‘Seek me in vain!’ ²  I am the Lord, the one who speaks honestly, who makes reliable announcements. ³ 

You take olive oil as tribute ¹  to your king, ²  along with many perfumes. ³  You send your messengers to a distant place; you go all the way to Sheol. ⁴ 

You are the one in whom Israel may find hope. ¹  All who leave you will suffer shame. Those who turn away from you ²  will be consigned to the nether world. ³  For they have rejected you, the Lord, the fountain of life. ⁴ 

The bravest of the warriors will speak to him from the midst of Sheol along with his allies, saying: ‘The uncircumcised have come down; they lie still, killed by the sword.’

“Edom is there with her kings and all her princes. Despite their might they are laid with those killed by the sword; they lie with the uncircumcised and those who descend to the pit.

and said, “I ¹  called out to the Lord from my distress, and he answered me; ²  from the belly of Sheol ³  I cried out for help, and you heard my prayer. ⁴ 

I went down ¹  to the very bottoms ²  of the mountains; ³  the gates ⁴  of the netherworld ⁵  barred me in ⁶  forever; ⁷  but you brought me ⁸  up from the Pit, ⁹  O Lord, my God.

But Jacob ¹  replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. ²  If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair ³  in sorrow to the grave.” ⁴ 

But if the Lord does something entirely new, ¹  and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up ²  along with all that they have, and they ³  go down alive to the grave, ⁴  then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

For you say, “We have made a treaty with death, with Sheol ¹  we have made an agreement. ²  When the overwhelming judgment sweeps by ³  it will not reach us. For we have made a lie our refuge, we have hidden ourselves in a deceitful word.” ⁴ 

You will fall; while lying on the ground ¹  you will speak; from the dust where you lie, your words will be heard. ²  Your voice will sound like a spirit speaking from the underworld; ³  from the dust you will chirp as if muttering an incantation. ⁴ 

then I will bring you down to bygone people, ¹  to be with those who descend to the pit. I will make you live in the lower parts of the earth, among ²  the primeval ruins, with those who descend to the pit, so that you will not be inhabited or stand ³  in the land of the living.

For this reason no watered trees will grow so tall; their tops will not reach into the clouds, nor will the well-watered ones grow that high. ¹  For all of them have been appointed to die in the lower parts of the earth; ²  they will be among mere mortals, ³  with those who descend to the pit.

“‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it ¹  went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. ²  I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it.