Isaiah 26
1 At that time, this will be the song that is sung in the land of Judah: “Ours is a strong city! Its walls and defenses are our salvation!
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates so the nation who follows the right can come in, the nation that stays faithful.
Open all of you the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.
3 You will keep in complete peace those who keep their minds focused on you, because they trust in you.
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.
Trust all of you in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
5 He brings down those who live so high and mighty; he demolishes the proud city with its high walls, bringing it down to the ground, into the dust.
For he brings down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he lays it low; he lays it low, even to the ground; he brings it even to the dust.
6 The poor tread it underfoot; the oppressed walk on top of it.
The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
7 You God, do what is right, and you straighten out the way for those who live right; you smooth out their path.
The way of the just is uprightness: you, most upright, do weigh the path of the just.
8 Yes, we follow your instructions, Lord, we put our hope in you. What we most want is to remember you and your wonderful character.
Yea, in the way of your judgments, O LORD, have we waited for you; the desire of our soul is to your name, and to the remembrance of you.
9 I look for you in the night; deep inside me I long for you. When your laws are shown to the earth, then the people of the world learn what is right.
With my soul have I desired you in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek you early: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 Though grace is shown to the wicked, they don't learn to do right. Even in a country where people do what's right, they continue to do evil and they don't think about how great the Lord is.
Let favour be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
11 Lord, you are holding your hand up, but they don't see it. Let them see your passionate commitment for your people, and be embarrassed; may the fire reserved for your enemies destroy them!
LORD, when your hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of your enemies shall devour them.
12 Lord, you give us peace and prosperity; everything we've achieved you have done for us.
LORD, you will ordain peace for us: for you also have wrought all our works in us.
13 Lord our God, there have been other lords besides you who have ruled us, but you are the only one we worship.
O LORD our God, other lords beside you have had dominion over us: but by you only will we make mention of your name.
14 They are dead, they will not live again; they will not rise from the grave. Lord, you punished them and destroyed them—even wiping out every memory about them.
They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
15 You have made the nation grow, Lord, you have made the nation grow. You have expanded our borders of the land, and we honored you.
You have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation: you are glorified: you had removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.
16 Lord, when we were suffering we came to you, pouring out our prayers like whispers as you disciplined us.
LORD, in trouble have they visited you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was upon them.
17 Just as a pregnant woman giving birth tosses about and cries out in pain, that's what we were like in your presence, Lord.
Like a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and cries out in her pangs; so have we been in your sight, O LORD.
18 However, even though we became pregnant and we tossed about in pain, we gave birth to nothing but air. We did not bring about the salvation of the earth, and the people of the world have not become alive.
We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 But those who died in you, Lord, will live! Their bodies will rise again! Wake up, and sing for joy, you people sleeping in the dust, for the dew you receive is like the dew of the morning giving life to those in the grave.
Your dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, all of you that dwell in dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
20 My people, go inside your homes and close your doors behind you. Hide there for a little while until the fury has passed.
Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation pass over.
21 Watch out! The Lord is coming from where he lives to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will reveal the blood that has been shed on it; the earth won't hide those who have been killed any no longer.”
For, behold, the LORD comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
