Isaiah 26–27

Judah’s Song of Praise

26On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;^a

he sets up victory like walls and ramparts!^b

²Open the gates so that^c the righteous nation who keeps faithfulness may enter!

³You will protect a firm inclination in peace,

in peace because he trusts in you.

⁴Trust in Yahweh forever,

for in Yah, Yahweh you have an everlasting rock.

⁵For he has thrown down the inhabitants of the height,

he lays low the lofty city.

He lays it low to the ground;

he throws her to the dust.

⁶The foot tramples it,

the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”

Yahweh’s People Vindicated

⁷The way of the righteous is a straight path;

you clear the level path of the righteous.^d

⁸Surely we wait for you in the path of your judgments, Yahweh,

for your name and renown are the desire of the soul.

⁹I desire you with all my soul in the night;

also I seek you with my spirit within me,

for when your judgments are upon^e the earth,

the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰Though the wicked person is shown compassion, he does not learn righteousness;

he acts unjustly in the land of uprightness,

and he does not see the majesty of Yahweh.

¹¹Yahweh, though your hand reaches high, they do not see it.

Let them see, and let them be ashamed of the zeal of people.

Indeed, let the fire of your enemies consume them.

¹²Yahweh, you will establish peace for us,

for you have done even all of our works for us.

¹³Yahweh, our God, lords besides you ruled over us,

but we praise your name alone.^f

¹⁴The dead do not live;

dead spirits do not rise

because you have punished and destroyed them,

and you have destroyed all memory of them.

¹⁵You have added to the nation, Yahweh.

You have added to the nation; you are honored.

You have extended all the ends of the land.

¹⁶Yahweh, in distress they have visited you;

they poured out an incantation;^g

your discipline was on them.

¹⁷Like a pregnant woman on the point of giving birth, she writhes;

she cries in her labor pains.

So we were because of your presence, Yahweh.

¹⁸We became pregnant, we writhed;

we gave birth to wind.

We cannot bring about deliverance on the earth,

and no inhabitants of the world are born.

¹⁹Your dead shall live; their corpses^h shall rise.

Wake up and sing for joy, dwellers of the dust,

for your dew is celestial dew,ⁱ

and the earth will give birth to dead spirits.^j

²⁰Go, my people, enter into your chambers

and shut your doors^k behind you;

hide for a very little^l while,

until the wrath has passed over.

²¹For look! Yahweh is about to come out from his place

to punish the iniquity of the inhabitants^m of the earth against him,

and the earth will disclose her blood

and will no longer cover her slain.

Israel Rescued

27On that day, Yahweh will punish with his cruel, great and strong sword Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will kill the sea monster that is in the sea.

²On that day:

“A vineyard of beauty! Sing in praise of it!

³I, Yahweh, am her keeper;

I water it again and again.^a

Lest one afflict harm on it,

I guard it night and day;

⁴I have no wrath.^b

Whatever gives me thorns and briers,

I will step forth against in battle.

I will set it on fire altogether.

⁵Or let it grasp at my protection;

let it make peace with me;

peace let it make with me.”

⁶Days are coming,^c let Jacob take root;

Israel will blossom and send out shoots,

and they will fill the face of the world with fruit.

⁷Does he strike him as he struck down those who struck him?^d

Or is he killed as those who killed him were killed?^e

⁸By expelling^f her, by her sending away, you argue with her.

He removed them with his strong wind,

in the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore by this he will make atonement for the guilt of Jacob,

and this will be all of the fruit of the removal of his sin:

when he makes^g all the stones of the altar like crushed stones of chalk,

no poles of Asherah worship or incense altars will stand.

¹⁰For the fortified city is solitary,

a settlement deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;

the calf grazes there,

lies down there and destroys its branches.

¹¹When its branches are dry,^h they are broken;

women are coming and setting light to it.

For it is not a people of understanding;

therefore his maker will not have compassion on him,

and his creator will not show him favor.

¹²And this shall happen:

on that day, Yahweh will thresh from the floodwaters of the Euphrates to the wadiⁱ of Egypt, and as for you, you will be gathered one by one, sons of Israel.

¹³And this shall happen:

on that day, a great trumpet will be blown,

and those who were lost in the land of Assyria will come,

and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt,

and they will bow down to Yahweh on the holy mountain^j at Jerusalem.