Isaiah 26

Judah’s Song of Victory

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

We have a strong city;

he sets up walls and bulwarks as a safeguard.^*

²Open the gates,

so that the righteous nation that maintains faithfulness

may enter in.^*

³Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace,

in peace because they trust in you.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever,

for in the Lord God^h

you have an everlasting rock.^*

⁵For he has brought low

the inhabitants of the height;

the lofty city he lays low.

He lays it low to the ground,

casts it to the dust.^*

⁶The foot tramples it,

the feet of the poor,

the steps of the needy.^*

⁷The way of the righteous is level;

straight is the path of the righteous that you clear.^*

⁸In the path of your judgments,

O Lord, we have placed hope;

your name and your renown

are the soul’s desire.^*

⁹My soul yearns for you in the night;

my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.

For when your judgments are in the earth,

the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.^*

¹⁰If favor is shown to the wicked,

they do not learn righteousness;

they corrupt what is upright on the earth

and do not see the majesty of the Lord.^*

¹¹O Lord, your hand is lifted up,

but they do not see it.

Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed.

Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.^*

¹²O Lord, may you ordain peace for us,

for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.^*

¹³O Lord our God,

other lords besides you have ruled over us,

but we acknowledge your name alone.^*

¹⁴The dead do not live;

shades do not rise

because you have punished and destroyed them

and wiped out all memory of them.^*

¹⁵But you have increased the nation, O Lord;

you have increased the nation; you are glorified;

you have enlarged all the borders of the land.^*

¹⁶O Lord, in distress they sought you;

they poured out a prayerⁱ

when your chastening was on them.^*

¹⁷Like a woman with child

about to give birth

writhes and cries out in her pain,

so were we because of you, O Lord;^*

¹⁸we were with child; we writhed,

but we gave birth only to wind.

We have won no victories on earth,

and no one is born to inhabit the world.^*

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

Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy!^k

For your dew is a radiant dew,

and the earth will give birth to those long dead.^l*

²⁰Come, my people, enter your chambers,

and shut your doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while

until the wrath is past.^*

²¹For the Lord comes out from his place

to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;

the earth will disclose the blood shed on it

and will no longer cover its slain.^*