Isaiah 26:1-21
26 In that day+ this song will be sung+ in the land of Judah:+ “We have a strong city.+ He sets salvation itself for walls and rampart.+
2 Open the gates,+ YOU men, that the righteous nation that is keeping faithful conduct may enter.+
3 The inclination that is well supported* you will safeguard in continuous peace,*+ because it is in you that one* is made to trust.+
4 Trust in Jehovah,+ YOU people, for all times, for in Jah* Jehovah* is the Rock+ of times indefinite.
5 “For he has laid low those inhabiting the height,+ the elevated town.+ He abases it, he abases it to the earth; he brings it in touch with the dust.+
6 The foot will trample it down, the feet of the afflicted one, the steps of the lowly ones.”+
7 The path of the righteous one is uprightness.+ You being upright, you will smooth out the very course of a righteous one.+
8 Yes, for the path of your judgments, O Jehovah, we have hoped in you.+ For your name and for your memorial+ the desire of the soul has been.+
9 With my soul I have desired you in the night;+ yes, with my spirit within me I keep looking for you;+ because, when there are judgments from you for the earth,+ righteousness+ is what the inhabitants of the productive land* will certainly learn.+
10 Though the wicked one should be shown favor, he simply will not learn righteousness.+ In the land of straightforwardness he will act unjustly+ and will not see the eminence of Jehovah.+
11 O Jehovah, your hand has become high,+ [but] they do not behold [it].+ They will behold and be ashamed+ at the zeal for [your] people. Yes, the very fire+ for your own adversaries will eat them up.*
12 O Jehovah, you will adjudge peace to us,+ because even all our works you have performed for us.+
13 O Jehovah our God,* other masters* besides you have acted as owners of us.+ By you only shall we make mention of your name.+
14 They are dead; they will not live.+ Impotent in death,*+ they will not rise up.+ Therefore you have turned your attention that you might annihilate them and destroy all mention of them.+
15 You have added to the nation; O Jehovah, you have added to the nation;+ you have glorified yourself.+ You have extended afar all the borders of the land.*+
16 O Jehovah, during distress they have turned their attention to you;+ they have poured out a whisper [of prayer] when they had your disciplining.+
17 Just as a pregnant woman draws near to giving birth, has labor pains, cries out in her birth pangs, so we have become because of you, O Jehovah.+
18 We have become pregnant, we have had labor pains;+ as it were, we have given birth to wind.* No real salvation do we accomplish as regards the land,+ and no inhabitants for the productive land proceed to fall [in birth].+
19 “Your dead ones will live.+ A corpse of mine*—they will rise up.+ Awake and cry out joyfully, YOU residents in the dust!+ For your dew+ is as the dew of mallows,+ and the earth itself will let even those impotent in death* drop [in birth].+
20 “Go, my people, enter into your interior rooms, and shut your doors behind you.+ Hide yourself for but a moment until the denunciation passes over.+
21 For, look! Jehovah is coming forth from his place to call to account the error of the inhabitant of the land against him,+ and the land will certainly expose her bloodshed*+ and will no longer cover over her killed ones.”+
Footnotes
^ Or, “that is unshakable.”
^ Lit., “[in] peace, peace.”
^ Or, “it.”
^ “Our God.” Heb., ʼElo·hehʹnu, pl.
^ “Masters.” Heb., ʼadho·nimʹ, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ.
^ “Impotent in death.” Heb., repha·ʼimʹ; Vg, “Giants.”
^ Or, “earth.” Heb., ʼaʹrets.
^ See vs 14 ftn.
^ “A corpse of mine.” Heb., neve·la·thiʹ, sing. but likely in a collective sense, “Corpses of mine”; LXX, “Those in the memorial tombs”; Vg, “My killed ones.”
^ Lit., “bloods.”
