Isaiah 26–27

God Will Give His People Victory

26A day is coming when the people will sing this song in the land of Judah:

Our city is strong!

God himself defends its walls!

²Open the city gates

and let the faithful nation enter,

the nation whose people do what is right.

³You, Lord, give perfect peace

to those who keep their purpose firm

and put their trust in you.

⁴Trust in the Lord for ever;

he will always protect us.

⁵He has humbled those who were proud;

he destroyed the strong city they lived in,

and sent its walls crashing into the dust.

⁶Those who were oppressed walk over it now

and trample it under their feet.

⁷Lord, you make the path smooth for good people;

the road they travel is level.

⁸We follow your will and put our hope in you;

you are all that we desire.

⁹At night I long for you with all my heart;

when you judge the earth and its people,

they will all learn what justice is.

¹⁰Even though you are kind to the wicked,

they never learn to do what is right.

Even here in a land of righteous people they still do wrong;

they refuse to recognize your greatness.

^11*Your enemies do not know that you will punish them.

let them suffer the punishment you have prepared.

Show them how much you love your people.

¹²You will give us prosperity, Lord;

everything that we achieve

is the result of what you do.ⁿ

¹³Lord our God, we have been ruled by others,

but you alone are our Lord.

¹⁴Now they are dead and will not live again;

their ghosts will not rise,

for you have punished them and destroyed them.

No one remembers them any more.

¹⁵Lord, you have made our nation grow,

enlarging its territory on every side,

and this has brought you honour.

¹⁶You punished your people, Lord,

and in anguish they prayed to you.^o

¹⁷You, Lord, have made us cry out,

as a woman in labour cries out in pain.

¹⁸We were in pain and agony,

but we gave birth to nothing.

We have won no victory for our land;

we have accomplished nothing.^p

¹⁹Those of our people who have died will live again!

Their bodies will come back to life.

All those sleeping in their graves

will wake up and sing for joy.

As the sparkling dew refreshes the earth,

so the Lord will revive those who have long been dead.

Judgement and Restoration

²⁰Go into your houses, my people, and shut the door behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until God’s anger is over. ²¹The Lord is coming from his heavenly dwelling place to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The murders that were secretly committed on the earth will be revealed, and the ground will no longer hide those who have been killed.

27^*On that day the Lord will use his powerful and deadly sword to punish Leviathan, that wriggling, twisting dragon, and to kill the monster^q that lives in the sea.

²On that day the Lord will say of his pleasant vineyard, ³“I watch over it and water it continually. I guard it night and day so that no one will harm it. ⁴I am no longer angry with the vineyard. If only there were thorns and briars to fight against, then I would burn them up completely. ⁵But if the enemies of my people want my protection, let them make peace with me. Yes, let them make peace with me.”

⁶In days to come the people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, will take root like a tree, and they will blossom and bud. The earth will be covered with the fruit they produce.

⁷Israel has not been punished by the Lord as severely as its enemies, nor lost as many people. ⁸The Lord punished his people by sending them into exile. He took them away with a cruel wind from the east.^{r 9}But Israel’s sins will be forgiven only when the stones of pagan altars are ground up like chalk, and no more incense altars or symbols of the goddess Asherah are left.

¹⁰The fortified city lies in ruins. It is deserted like an empty wilderness. It has become a pasture for cattle, where they can rest and graze. ¹¹The branches of the trees are withered and broken, and women gather them for firewood. Because the people have understood nothing, God their Creator will not pity them or show them any mercy.

¹²On that day, from the Euphrates to the Egyptian border, the Lord will gather his people one by one, like someone separating the wheat from the chaff.

¹³When that day comes, a trumpet will be blown to call back from Assyria and Egypt all the Israelites who are in exile there. They will come and worship the Lord in Jerusalem, on his sacred hill.^s