Isaiah 26
1 Some day, [people in] Judah will sing this song: Our city [of Jerusalem] is strong! Yahweh protects our city; He is like [MET] a wall that surrounds it.
In that day shall this canticle be sung the land of Juda. Sion the city of our strength a saviour, a wall and a bulwark shall be set therein.
2 Open the gates of the city for people who are righteous; allow people who faithfully [obey Yahweh] to enter the city.
Open ye the gates, and let the just nation, that keepeth the truth, enter in.
3 Yahweh, those who trust in you, those who firmly resolve to never doubt you, you will enable them to feel perfectly peaceful.
The old error is passed away: thou wilt keep peace: peace, because we have hoped in thee.
4 [So] always trust in Yahweh, because Yahweh, [our God], is forever [like] [MET] a huge rock [under which we are sheltered/protected/safe].
You have hoped in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord God mighty for ever.
5 He humbles proud people and destroys cities whose people are arrogant. He causes those cities to collapse into the dust/dirt.
For he shall bring down them that dwell on high, the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground, he shall pull it down even to the dust.
6 [When that happens], poor and oppressed people will trample on the ruins.
The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.
7 [But as for] righteous people, Yahweh, you do what is right; [it is as though] you cause the paths where they walk to be level and smooth.
The way of the just is right, the path of the just is right to walk in.
8 Yahweh, by obeying your laws we show that we trust you to help us; and what we desire is that you will be honored/praised/exalted.
And in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for thee: thy name, and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul.
9 [All] through the night I [SYN] desire to know you better, and each morning I still want to be with you. [Only] when you come to judge [and punish] people who live on the earth will they learn to do what is right.
My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me in the morning early I will watch to thee. When thou shalt do thy judgments on the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn justice.
10 [But] your acting kindly toward wicked people does not cause them to do what is good. [Even] in places where people do what is right, the wicked people continue to do what is evil, and they do not realize that you, Yahweh, are great.
Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice: in the land of the saints he hath done wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord.
11 Yahweh, [it is as though] your fist is raised up [ready to strike them], but they do not realize that. Show them that you are very eager to help your people. If your enemies would realize that, they would be ashamed; allow your fire to burn them up [because they are] your enemies.
Lord, let thy hand be exalted, and let them not see: let the envious people see, and be confounded: and let fire devour thy enemies.
12 Yahweh, [we desire that] you will allow things to go well for us; everything that we have done is what you have enabled us to do.
Lord, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought all our works for us.
13 Yahweh, our God, others have ruled over us, but you [MTY] are the only one whom we honor.
O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, only in thee let us remember thy name.
14 Those who ruled us are [now] gone; they are dead; their spirits have left this earth, and they will not become alive [again]. You punished those rulers and got rid of them, and people do not even remember them any more.
Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and best destroyed all their memory.
15 Yahweh, you have enabled our nation to become great; we are more in [now], and we have more land, [so we] thank/praise you.
Thou hast been favourable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favourable to the nation: art thou glorified? thou hast removed all the ends of the earth far off.
16 Yahweh, when we were distressed, we asked you [to help us]; when you disciplined/punished us, we were able only to whisper when we prayed to you.
Lord, they have sought after thee in distress, in the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them.
17 Like pregnant women writhe and cry out when they are giving birth, we suffered very much, too.
As a woman with child, when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs: so are we become in thy presence, O Lord.
18 We had severe pain, but nothing good resulted [MET] from it. We have not rescued our people [from being conquered by our enemies], and we have not given birth to children [who will rule the world correctly] (OR, not defeated the armies [that have attacked other nations].
We have conceived, and been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.
19 But Yahweh’s people who have died will become alive [again], their corpses will become alive! Those whose bodies lie in graves will rise and shout joyfully! His light will be [like] dew that falls on his people who have died, who are [now] in the place where the dead people are, [and will cause them to become alive again].
Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again: awake, and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin.
20 But now, my people/fellow-citizens, go home and lock your doors! Hide for a short time, until [Yahweh] is no longer angry.
Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee, hide thyself a little for a moment, until the indignation pass away.
21 Listen to this: Yahweh will come from heaven to punish [all] the people on the earth for the sins that they have committed. People will be able to see [PRS] the (blood of those/the people) who have been murdered; their murderers will no longer be able to hide.
For behold the Lord will come out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more.
