Isaiah 26:16–27:6

¹⁶Lord, in distress we searched for you.

We prayed beneath the burden of your discipline.

¹⁷Just as a pregnant woman

writhes and cries out in pain as she gives birth,

so were we in your presence, Lord.

¹⁸We, too, writhe in agony,

but nothing comes of our suffering.

We have not given salvation to the earth,

nor brought life into the world.

¹⁹But those who die in the Lord will live;

their bodies will rise again!

Those who sleep in the earth

will rise up and sing for joy!

For your life-giving light will fall like dew

on your people in the place of the dead!

Restoration for Israel

²⁰Go home, my people,

and lock your doors!

Hide yourselves for a little while

until the Lord’s anger has passed.

²¹Look! The Lord is coming from heaven

to punish the people of the earth for their sins.

The earth will no longer hide those who have been killed.

They will be brought out for all to see.

Chapter 27

In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish Leviathan, the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent. He will kill the dragon of the sea.

²“In that day,

sing about the fruitful vineyard.

³I, the Lord, will watch over it,

watering it carefully.

Day and night I will watch so no one can harm it.

⁴My anger will be gone.

If I find briers and thorns growing,

I will attack them;

I will burn them up—

⁵unless they turn to me for help.

Let them make peace with me;

yes, let them make peace with me.”

⁶The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root.

Israel will bud and blossom

and fill the whole earth with fruit!