Isaiah 26–27

26TH CHAPTER

The Lord’s People Praise Him for Salvation

¹On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: 

We have a strong city. 

Its walls and fortifications provide safety. 

²Open the gates, and let the righteous nation come in, 

the nation that remains faithful. 

³With perfect peace you will protect those whose minds cannot be changed, 

because they trust you. 

⁴Trust the Lord always, 

because the Lord, the Lord alone, is an everlasting rock. 

⁵He has brought down those who live high in the towering city. 

He levels it. 

He levels it to the ground and throws it into the dust. 

⁶Feet trample it, 

the feet of the oppressed, 

the footsteps of the poor. 

⁷The path of the righteous is level. 

O Upright One, you make the road of the righteous smooth. 

⁸Certainly, we wait with hope for you, O Lord, 

⸤as we follow⸥ the path of your guiding principles. 

We want to remember you and your name. 

⁹With my soul I long for you at night. 

Yes, with my spirit I eagerly look for you. 

When your guiding principles are on earth, 

those who live in the world learn to do what is right. 

¹⁰Although the wicked are shown pity, 

they do not learn to do what is right. 

They do what is wrong in the upright land 

and do not see the majesty of the Lord. 

¹¹O Lord, your power is visible, but they do not see it. 

They will see how devoted your people are, 

and they will be put to shame. 

Your burning anger will destroy your enemies. 

¹²O Lord, you will establish peace for us, 

since you have done everything for us. 

¹³O Lord, our God, you are not the only master to rule us, 

but we acknowledge only you. 

¹⁴The wicked are dead. 

They are no longer alive. 

The spirits of the dead won’t rise. 

You have punished them, destroyed them, 

and wiped out all memory of them. 

¹⁵You have expanded the nation, O Lord. 

You have expanded the nation. 

You are honored. 

You have extended all the land’s boundaries. 

¹⁶O Lord, the people have come to you in trouble. 

They were humbled by oppression, by your discipline upon them. 

¹⁷O Lord, when we are with you, 

we are like pregnant women ready to give birth. 

They writhe and cry out in their labor pains. 

¹⁸We were pregnant; we writhed with labor pains 

only to give birth to the wind. 

We weren’t able to bring salvation to the land, 

and no new people were born on earth. 

¹⁹Your dead will live. 

Their corpses will rise. 

Those who lie dead in the dust will wake up and shout for joy, 

because your dew is a refreshing dew, 

and the earth will revive the spirits of the dead. 

²⁰My people, go to your rooms, 

and shut the doors behind you. 

Hide for a little while until his fury has ended. 

²¹The Lord is going to come out from his dwelling place 

to punish those who live on earth for their sins. 

The earth will uncover the blood shed on it 

and will no longer cover up its dead bodies. 

27TH CHAPTER

The Lord’s People Will Worship on His Holy Mountain

¹On that day the Lord will use his fierce and powerful sword 

to punish Leviathan,that slippery snake, 

Leviathan, that twisting snake. 

He will kill that monster which lives in the sea. 

²On that day sing about a delightful vineyard. 

³I, the Lord, watch over it. 

I water it continually. 

I watch over it day and night 

so that no one will harm it. 

⁴I am no longer angry. 

If only thorns and briars would confront me! 

I would fight them in battle and set all of them on fire. 

⁵Or else let them come to me for protection. 

Let them make peace with me. 

Yes, let them make peace with me. 

⁶In times to come Jacob will take root. 

Israel will blossom, bud, 

and fill the whole world with fruit. 

⁷Will the Lord hurt Israel as he hurt others who hurt them? 

Will he kill them as he killed others? 

⁸He punished Israel by sending it away. 

He removed it with a fierce blast from the east winds. 

⁹In this way the wrongdoings of the descendants of Jacob are covered up. 

This is the way they will turn from their sins— 

when they turn all the altar stones into powdered chalk 

and no poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah 

or incense altars are left standing. 

¹⁰The fortified city is isolated. 

The homestead is left deserted, abandoned like the desert. 

Calves will graze there. 

They will lie down. 

They will feed on the branches. 

¹¹When the branches are dried up, 

they will be broken off. 

Women will come and build a fire with them. 

These people don’t understand ⸤these things⸥. 

That is why their maker won’t have compassion on them, 

and their Creator won’t have pity on them. 

¹²On that day the Lord will begin his threshing^c

from the flowing stream of the Euphrates River 

to the brook of Egypt. 

People of Israel, you will be gathered one by one. 

¹³On that day a ram’s horn will be blown loudly. 

Those who are dying in Assyria 

and those who are banished to Egypt 

will come and worship the Lord 

on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.