Isaiah 26:16–27:6

¹⁶Lord, people remember you when they are in trouble;

they say quiet prayers to you when you punish them.

¹⁷Lord, when we are with you,

we are like a woman giving birth to a baby;

she cries and has pain from the birth.

¹⁸In the same way, we had pain.

We gave birth, but only to wind.

We don’t bring salvation to the land

or make new people for the world.

¹⁹Your people have died, but they will live again;

their bodies will rise from death.

You who lie in the ground,

wake up and be happy!

The dew covering you is like the dew of a new day;

the ground will give birth to the dead.

Judgment: Reward or Punishment

²⁰My people, go into your rooms

and shut your doors behind you.

Hide in your rooms for a short time

until God’s anger is finished.

²¹The Lord will leave his place

to punish the people of the world for their sins.

The earth will show the blood of the people who have been killed;

it will not cover the dead any longer.

27At that time the Lord will punish Leviathan, the gliding snake.

He will punish Leviathan, the coiled snake,

with his great and hard and powerful sword.

He will kill the monster in the sea.

²At that time

people will sing about the pleasant vineyard.

³“I, the Lord, will care for that vineyard;

I will water it at the right time.

No one will hurt it,

because I will guard it day and night.

⁴I am not angry.

If anyone builds a wall of thornbushes in war,

I will march to it and burn it.

⁵But if anyone comes to me for safety

and wants to make peace with me,

he should come and make peace with me.”

⁶In the days to come, the people of Jacob will be like a plant with good roots;

Israel will grow like a plant beginning to bloom.

Then the world will be filled with their children.