Isaiah 26–27

A Song of Salvation

26In ^athat day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

^bGod will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.

^2cOpen the gates,

That the righteous nation which ¹keeps the truth may enter in.

³You will keep him in perfect ^dpeace,

Whose mind is stayed on You,

Because he trusts in You.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever,

^eFor in Yah, the Lord, is ²everlasting strength.

⁵For He brings ³down those who dwell on high,

^fThe lofty city;

He lays it low,

He lays it low to the ground,

He brings it down to the dust.

⁶The foot shall ⁴tread it down—

The feet of the poor

And the steps of the needy.”

⁷The way of the just is uprightness;

^gO Most Upright,

You ⁵weigh the path of the just.

⁸Yes, ^hin the way of Your judgments,

O Lord, we have ⁱwaited for You;

The desire of our soul is for Your name

And for the remembrance of You.

^9jWith my soul I have desired You in the night,

Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;

For when Your judgments are in the earth,

The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

^10kLet grace be shown to the wicked,

Yet he will not learn righteousness;

In ^lthe land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,

And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹Lord, when Your hand is lifted up, ^mthey will not see.

But they will see and be ashamed

For ⁶their envy of people;

Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.

¹²Lord, You will establish peace for us,

For You have also done all our works ⁷in us.

¹³O Lord our God, ⁿmasters besides You

Have had dominion over us;

But by You only we make mention of Your name.

¹⁴They are dead, they will not live;

They are deceased, they will not rise.

Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,

And made all their memory to ^operish.

¹⁵You have increased the nation, O Lord,

You have ^pincreased the nation;

You are glorified;

You have expanded all the ⁸borders of the land.

¹⁶Lord, ^qin trouble they have visited You,

They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them.

¹⁷As ^ra woman with child

Is in pain and cries out in her ⁹pangs,

When she draws near the time of her delivery,

So have we been in Your sight, O Lord.

¹⁸We have been with child, we have been in pain;

We have, as it were, ¹brought forth wind;

We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,

Nor have ^sthe inhabitants of the world fallen.

^19tYour dead shall live;

Together with ²my dead body they shall arise.

^uAwake and sing, you who dwell in dust;

For your dew is like the dew of herbs,

And the earth shall cast out the dead.

Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment

²⁰Come, my people, ^venter your chambers,

And shut your doors behind you;

Hide yourself, as it were, ^wfor a little moment,

Until the indignation is past.

²¹For behold, the Lord ^xcomes out of His place

To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;

The earth will also disclose her ³blood,

And will no more cover her slain.

27In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,

Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,

^aLeviathan that twisted serpent;

And He will slay ^bthe reptile that is in the sea.

The Restoration of Israel

²In that day ^csing to her,

^d“A vineyard of ¹red wine!

^3eI, the Lord, keep it,

I water it every moment;

Lest any hurt it,

I keep it night and day.

⁴Fury is not in Me.

Who would set ^fbriers and thorns

Against Me in battle?

I would go through them,

I would burn them together.

⁵Or let him take hold ^gof My strength,

That he may ^hmake peace with Me;

And he shall make peace with Me.”

⁶Those who come He shall cause ⁱto take root in Jacob;

Israel shall blossom and bud,

And fill the face of the world with fruit.

^7jHas He struck ²Israel as He struck those who struck him?

Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?

^8kIn measure, by sending it away,

You contended with it.

^lHe removes it by His rough wind

In the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;

And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:

When he makes all the stones of the altar

Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,

³Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.

¹⁰Yet the fortified city will be ^mdesolate,

The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;

There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down

And consume its branches.

¹¹When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;

The women come and set them on fire.

For ⁿit is a people of no understanding;

Therefore He who made them will ^onot have mercy on them,

And ^pHe who formed them will show them no favor.

¹²And it shall come to pass in that day

That the Lord will thresh,

From the channel of ⁴the River to the Brook of Egypt;

And you will be ^qgathered one by one,

O you children of Israel.

^13rSo it shall be in that day:

^sThe great trumpet will be blown;

They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,

And they who are outcasts in the land of ^tEgypt,

And shall ^uworship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.