< Isaiah 26 >
1 On that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: A strong city have we; his aid will he grant [us] as walls and defence.
2 Open ye the gates, that there may enter in the righteous nation which guardeth the truth.
3 The confiding mind wilt thou keep in perfect peace; because he trusteth in thee.
4 Trust ye in the Lord unto eternity; for in Yah the Lord is everlasting protection.
5 For he bendeth down the dwellers of the height; the lofty fortress—he layeth it low; he layeth it low, along the ground; he casteth it down to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.
7 The path of the just is straight: thou, most upright, dost ever level the road of the just.
8 Yea, on the path of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; for thy name, and for the remembrance of thee, was the longing of our soul.
9 In my soul have I longed for thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek for thee; for when thy judgments are [sent] on the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 If favor be shown to the wicked, he will not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not regard the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, thy hand was raised high, but they would not see: oh that they might see, and be ashamed, [thy] zeal for the people; yea, the fire which shall devour them—thy enemies.
12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us; for also all our works hast thou accomplished for us.
13 O Lord our God, lords have had dominion over us beside thee; [but] of thee only would we make mention, —of thy name.
14 [They are] dead, they will not live [again]; [they are] departed, they will not rise [again]; therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made to perish every memorial of them.
15 Thou hast done more for the nation, O Lord, thou hast done more for the nation; thou hast glorified thyself: thou hast enlarged all the ends of the earth.
16 Lord, in trouble have they sought thee, they poured out earnest prayers when thy chastening was upon them.
17 Like as a pregnant woman, that is near giving birth, is in pain, [and] crieth out in her pangs: so have we been in thy presence, O Lord.
18 We have been pregnant and in pain, [but it was] as though we brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the land; and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
19 Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing ye, that dwell in the dust; for a dew on herbs is thy dew, and the earth shall cast out the departed.
20 Go, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy door behind thee: hide thyself but for a little moment, until the indignation be passed away.
21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth on them: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more be a cover over her slain.
