Isaiah 26

1 In that day this song is sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city, He makes salvation [for] walls and bulwark.

In that day, this canticle will be sung in the land of Judah. Within it will be set the city of our strength: Zion, a savior, a wall with a bulwark.

2 Open the gates, That a righteous nation may enter, Preserving steadfastness.

Open the gates, and let the just people who guard the truth enter.

3 You keep [him] in peace [whose] imagination [is] stayed—peace! For he is confident in You.

The old error has gone away. You will serve peace: peace, for we have hoped in you.

4 Trust in YHWH forever, For in YAH—YHWH [is] a rock of ages,

You have trusted in the Lord for all eternity, in the Lord God almighty forever.

5 For He bowed down the dwellers on high, A city set on high He makes low, He makes it low to the earth, He causes it to come to the dust,

For he will bend down those living in the heights. He will bring low the lofty city. He will lower it, even to the ground. He will tear it down, even to the dust.

6 A foot treads it down, Feet of the poor—steps of the weak.

The foot will tread it down: the feet of the poor, the steps of the indigent.

7 The path for the righteous [is] uprightness, O upright One, You ponder the path of the righteous.

The path of the just is upright; the difficult path of the just is right to walk in.

8 Also, [in] the path of Your judgments, O YHWH, we have waited [for] You, To Your Name and to Your remembrance [Is] the desire of the soul.

And in the path of your judgments, O Lord, we have endured for you. Your name and your remembrance are the desire of the soul.

9 I desired You in the night [with] my soul, Also, I seek You earnestly [with] my spirit within me, For when Your judgments [are] on the earth, The inhabitants of the world have learned righteousness.

My soul has desired you in the night. But I will also watch for you with my spirit, in my inmost heart, from the morning. When you accomplish your judgments upon the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn justice.

10 The wicked finds favor, He has not learned righteousness, He deals perversely in a land of straightforwardness, And does not see the excellence of YHWH.

Let us take pity on the impious one, but he will not learn justice. In the land of the holy ones, he has done iniquity, and so he will not see the glory of the Lord.

11 O YHWH, Your hand [is] high—they do not see, They see the zeal of the people, and are ashamed, Also, the fire consumes Your adversaries.

Lord, let your hand be exalted, and let them not see it. May the envious people see and be confounded. And may fire devour your enemies.

12 O YHWH, You appoint peace to us, For You have also worked all our works for us.

Lord, you will give us peace. For all our works have been wrought for us by you.

13 O our God YHWH, lords have ruled us besides You, Only, by You we make mention of Your Name.

O Lord our God, other lords have possessed us apart from you, but in you alone let us remember your name.

14 Dead—they do not live, Rephaim, they do not rise, Therefore You have inspected and destroy them, Indeed, you destroy all their memory.

Let not the dead live; let not the giants rise up again. For this reason, you have visited and destroyed them, and you have perished all remembrance of them.

15 You have added to the nation, O YHWH, You have added to the nation, You have been honored, You have put all the ends of the earth far off.

You have been lenient to the people, O Lord, lenient to the people. But have you been glorified? You have removed all the limits of the earth.

16 O YHWH, in distress they missed You, They have poured out a whisper, Your discipline [is] on them.

Lord, they have sought you in anguish. Your doctrine was with them, amid the tribulation of murmuring.

17 When a pregnant woman comes near to the birth, She is pained—she cries in her pangs, So we have been from Your face, O YHWH.

Like a woman who has conceived and is approaching the time for delivery, who, in anguish, cries out in her pains, so have we become before your face, O Lord.

18 We have conceived, we have been pained. We have brought forth, as it were, wind, We do not work salvation in the earth, Nor do the inhabitants of the world fall.

We have conceived, and it is as if we were in labor, but we have given birth to wind. We have not brought forth salvation on the earth. For this reason, the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.

19 Your dead live—My dead body, they rise. Awake and sing, you dwellers in the dust, For the dew of herbs [is] your dew, And you cause the land of Rephaim to fall.

Your dead shall live. My slain will rise again. Be awakened, and give praise, you who live in the dust! For your dew is the dew of the light, and you shall be dragged down to the land of the giants, to ruination.

20 Come, My people, enter into your inner chambers, And shut your doors behind you, Hide yourself shortly [for] a moment until the indignation passes over.

Go, my people! Enter your chambers. Close your doors behind you. Conceal yourselves for a very brief time, until the indignation has passed over you.

21 For behold, YHWH is coming out of His place, To charge the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth on him, And the earth has revealed her blood, Nor does she cover her slain anymore!”

For behold, the Lord will go forth from his place, so that he may visit the iniquity of each inhabitant of the earth against him. And the earth will reveal its blood, and it will no longer cover its slain.