Isaiah 26:1–29:24
26 In athat day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;
bGod will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2 cOpen the gates,
That the righteous nation which 1keeps the truth may enter in.
3 You will keep him in perfect dpeace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
eFor in Yah, the Lord, is 2everlasting strength.
5 For He brings 3down those who dwell on high,
fThe lofty city;
He lays it low,
He lays it low to the ground,
He brings it down to the dust.
6 The foot shall 4tread it down—
The feet of the poor
And the steps of the needy.”
7 The way of the just is uprightness;
gO Most Upright,
You 5weigh the path of the just.
8 Yes, hin the way of Your judgments,
O Lord, we have iwaited for You;
The desire of our soul is for Your name
And for the remembrance of You.
9 jWith my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 kLet grace be shown to the wicked,
Yet he will not learn righteousness;
In lthe land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, when Your hand is lifted up, mthey will not see.
But they will see and be ashamed
For 6their envy of people;
Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.
12 Lord, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works 7in us.
13 O Lord our God, nmasters besides You
Have had dominion over us;
But by You only we make mention of Your name.
14 They are dead, they will not live;
They are deceased, they will not rise.
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And made all their memory to operish.
15 You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have pincreased the nation;
You are glorified;
You have expanded all the 8borders of the land.
16 Lord, qin trouble they have visited You,
They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them.
17 As ra woman with child
Is in pain and cries out in her 9pangs,
When she draws near the time of her delivery,
So have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
18 We have been with child, we have been in pain;
We have, as it were, 1brought forth wind;
We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
Nor have sthe inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 tYour dead shall live;
Together with 2my dead body they shall arise.
uAwake and sing, you who dwell in dust;
For your dew is like the dew of herbs,
And the earth shall cast out the dead.
Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment
20 Come, my people, venter your chambers,
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide yourself, as it were, wfor a little moment,
Until the indignation is past.
21 For behold, the Lord xcomes out of His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
The earth will also disclose her 3blood,
And will no more cover her slain.
27 In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
aLeviathan that twisted serpent;
And He will slay bthe reptile that is in the sea.
2 In that day csing to her,
3 eI, the Lord, keep it,
I water it every moment;
Lest any hurt it,
I keep it night and day.
Who would set fbriers and thorns
Against Me in battle?
I would go through them,
I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold gof My strength,
That he may hmake peace with Me;
And he shall make peace with Me.”
6 Those who come He shall cause ito take root in Jacob;
Israel shall blossom and bud,
And fill the face of the world with fruit.
7 jHas He struck 2Israel as He struck those who struck him?
Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?
8 kIn measure, by sending it away,
You contended with it.
lHe removes it by His rough wind
In the day of the east wind.
9 Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;
And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:
When he makes all the stones of the altar
Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,
3Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.
10 Yet the fortified city will be mdesolate,
The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;
There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down
And consume its branches.
11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;
The women come and set them on fire.
For nit is a people of no understanding;
Therefore He who made them will onot have mercy on them,
And pHe who formed them will show them no favor.
12 And it shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will thresh,
From the channel of 4the River to the Brook of Egypt;
And you will be qgathered one by one,
O you children of Israel.
13 rSo it shall be in that day:
sThe great trumpet will be blown;
They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,
And they who are outcasts in the land of tEgypt,
And shall uworship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
28 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,
Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower
Which is at the head of the 1verdant valleys,
To those who are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one,
aLike a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
Like a flood of mighty waters overflowing,
Who will bring them down to the earth with His hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,
Will be trampled underfoot;
4 And the glorious beauty is a fading flower
Which is at the head of the 2verdant valley,
Like the first fruit before the summer,
Which an observer sees;
He eats it up while it is still in his hand.
5 In that day the Lord of hosts will be
For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty
To the remnant of His people,
6 For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 But they also bhave erred through wine,
And through intoxicating drink are out of the way;
cThe priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink,
They are swallowed up by wine,
They are out of the way through intoxicating drink;
They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filth;
No place is clean.
9 “Whom dwill he teach knowledge?
And whom will he make to understand the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just drawn from the breasts?
10 eFor precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little.”
11 For with fstammering lips and another tongue
He will speak to this people,
12 To whom He said, “This is the grest with which
You may cause the weary to rest,”
And, “This is the refreshing”;
Yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the Lord was to them,
“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little,”
That they might go and fall backward, and be broken
And snared and caught.
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we are in agreement.
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
It will not come to us,
hFor we have made lies our refuge,
And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”
16 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
“Behold, I lay in Zion ia stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
17 Also I will make justice the measuring line,
And righteousness the plummet;
The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
Then you will be trampled down by it.
19 As often as it goes out it will take you;
For morning by morning it will pass over,
And by day and by night;
It will be a terror just to understand the report.”
20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
And the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.
21 For the Lord will rise up as at Mount jPerazim,
He will be angry as in the Valley of kGibeon—
That He may do His work, lHis awesome work,
And bring to pass His act, His 3unusual act.
22 Now therefore, do not be mockers,
Lest your bonds be made strong;
For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts,
mA 4destruction determined even upon the whole earth.
23 Give ear and hear my voice,
Listen and hear my speech.
24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow?
Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?
25 When he has leveled its surface,
Does he not sow the black cummin
And scatter the cummin,
Plant the wheat in rows,
The barley in the appointed place,
And the 5spelt in its place?
26 For He instructs him in right judgment,
His God teaches him.
27 For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin;
But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick,
And the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread flour must be ground;
Therefore he does not thresh it forever,
Break it with his cartwheel,
Or crush it with his horsemen.
29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts,
nWho is wonderful in counsel and excellent in 6guidance.
29 “Woe ato 1Ariel, to Ariel, the city bwhere David dwelt!
Add year to year;
Let feasts come around.
There shall be heaviness and sorrow,
And it shall be to Me as Ariel.
3 I will encamp against you all around,
I will lay siege against you with a mound,
And I will raise siegeworks against you.
You shall speak out of the ground;
Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;
Your voice shall be like a medium’s, cout of the ground;
And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
5 “Moreover the multitude of your dfoes
Shall be like fine dust,
And the multitude of the terrible ones
Like echaff that passes away;
Yes, it shall be fin an instant, suddenly.
6 gYou will be punished by the Lord of hosts
With thunder and hearthquake and great noise,
With storm and tempest
And the flame of devouring fire.
7 iThe multitude of all the nations who fight against 2Ariel,
Even all who fight against her