Isaiah 26–27

Chapter 26

Song of Trust in God’s Protection

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

“We have a ^bstrong city;

He sets up walls and ramparts for ^1csecurity.

²“Open the ^agates, that the ^brighteous nation may enter,

The one that ¹remains faithful.

³“The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect ^apeace,

Because he trusts in You.

⁴“^aTrust in the Lord forever,

For in ¹God the Lord, we have an everlasting ^bRock.

⁵“For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the ^aunassailable city;

^bHe lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust.

⁶“^aThe foot will trample it,

The feet of the ^bafflicted, the steps of the helpless.”

⁷The ^away of the righteous is smooth;

O Upright One, ^bmake the path of the righteous level.

⁸Indeed, while following the way of ^aYour judgments, O Lord,

We have waited for You eagerly;

^bYour name, even Your ^cmemory, is the desire of our souls.

^9aAt night ¹my soul longs for You,

Indeed, ²my spirit within me ^bseeks You diligently;

For when the earth ³experiences Your judgments

The inhabitants of the world ^clearn righteousness.

¹⁰Though the wicked is shown favor,

He does not ^alearn righteousness;

He ^bdeals unjustly in the land of uprightness,

And does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹O Lord, Your hand is lifted up yet they ^ado not see it.

¹They see ^bYour zeal for the people and are put to shame;

Indeed, ^2cfire will devour Your enemies.

¹²Lord, You will establish ^apeace for us,

Since You have also performed for us all our works.

¹³O Lord our God, ^aother masters besides You have ruled us;

But through You alone we ^1bconfess Your name.

^14aThe dead will not live, the ¹departed spirits will not rise;

Therefore You have ^bpunished and destroyed them,

And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.

^15aYou have increased the nation, O Lord,

You have increased the nation, You are glorified;

You have ^bextended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶O Lord, they sought You ^ain distress;

They ¹could only whisper a prayer,

Your chastening was upon them.

^17aAs the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,

She writhes and cries out in her labor pains,

Thus were we before You, O Lord.

¹⁸We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,

We ^agave birth, as it seems, only to wind.

We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,

Nor were ^binhabitants of the world ¹born.

¹⁹Your ^adead will live;

¹Their corpses will rise.

You who lie in the dust, ^bawake and shout for joy,

For your dew is as the dew of the ²dawn,

And the earth will ³give birth to the ⁴departed spirits.

²⁰Come, my people, ^aenter into your rooms

And close your doors behind you;

Hide for a little ^1bwhile

Until ^cindignation ²runs its course.

²¹For behold, the Lord is about to ^acome out from His place

To ^bpunish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;

And the earth will ^creveal her bloodshed

And will no longer cover her slain.

Chapter 27

The Deliverance of Israel

¹In that day ^athe Lord will punish ^1bLeviathan the fleeing serpent,

With His fierce and great and mighty sword,

Even Leviathan the twisted serpent;

And ^cHe will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.

²In that day,

“A ^1avineyard of wine, sing of it!

³“I, the Lord, am its keeper;

^aI water it every moment.

So that no one will ¹damage it,

I ^bguard it night and day.

⁴“I have no wrath.

Should ¹someone give Me ^abriars and thorns in battle,

Then I would step on them, ^bI would burn them ²completely.

⁵“Or let him ^1arely on My protection,

Let him make peace with Me,

Let him ^bmake peace with Me.”

⁶¹In the days to come Jacob ^awill take root,

Israel will ^bblossom and sprout,

And they will fill the ²whole world with ^cfruit.

⁷Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has ^aHe struck them?

Or like the slaughter of His slain, ¹have they been slain?

⁸You contended with them ¹by banishing them, by ^adriving them away.

With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the ^beast wind.

⁹Therefore through this Jacob’s iniquity will be ^aforgiven;

And this will be ¹the full price of the ^2bpardoning of his sin:

When he makes all the ^caltar stones like pulverized chalk stones;

When ³Asherim and incense altars will not stand.

¹⁰For the fortified city is ^aisolated,

A ¹homestead forlorn and forsaken like the desert;

^bThere the calf will graze,

And there it will lie down and ²feed on its branches.

¹¹When its ^alimbs are dry, they are broken off;

Women come and make a fire with them,

For they are not a people of ^bdiscernment,

Therefore ^ctheir Maker ^dwill not have compassion on them.

And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

¹²In that day the Lord ^awill start His threshing from the flowing stream of the ^bEuphrates to the brook of Egypt, and you will be ^cgathered up one by one, O sons of Israel.

¹³It will come about also in that day that a great ^atrumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of ^bAssyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and ^cworship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.