Isaiah 26

1 In that day, this canticle will be sung in the land of Judah. Within it will be set the city of our strength: Zion, a savior, a wall with a bulwark.

At that time, this will be the song that is sung in the land of Judah: “Ours is a strong city! Its walls and defenses are our salvation!

2 Open the gates, and let the just people who guard the truth enter.

Open the gates so the nation who follows the right can come in, the nation that stays faithful.

3 The old error has gone away. You will serve peace: peace, for we have hoped in you.

You will keep in complete peace those who keep their minds focused on you, because they trust in you.

4 You have trusted in the Lord for all eternity, in the Lord God almighty forever.

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.

5 For he will bend down those living in the heights. He will bring low the lofty city. He will lower it, even to the ground. He will tear it down, even to the dust.

He brings down those who live so high and mighty; he demolishes the proud city with its high walls, bringing it down to the ground, into the dust.

6 The foot will tread it down: the feet of the poor, the steps of the indigent.

The poor tread it underfoot; the oppressed walk on top of it.

7 The path of the just is upright; the difficult path of the just is right to walk in.

You God, do what is right, and you straighten out the way for those who live right; you smooth out their path.

8 And in the path of your judgments, O Lord, we have endured for you. Your name and your remembrance are the desire of the soul.

Yes, we follow your instructions, Lord, we put our hope in you. What we most want is to remember you and your wonderful character.

9 My soul has desired you in the night. But I will also watch for you with my spirit, in my inmost heart, from the morning. When you accomplish your judgments upon the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn justice.

I look for you in the night; deep inside me I long for you. When your laws are shown to the earth, then the people of the world learn what is right.

10 Let us take pity on the impious one, but he will not learn justice. In the land of the holy ones, he has done iniquity, and so he will not see the glory of the Lord.

Though grace is shown to the wicked, they don't learn to do right. Even in a country where people do what's right, they continue to do evil and they don't think about how great the Lord is.

11 Lord, let your hand be exalted, and let them not see it. May the envious people see and be confounded. And may fire devour your enemies.

Lord, you are holding your hand up, but they don't see it. Let them see your passionate commitment for your people, and be embarrassed; may the fire reserved for your enemies destroy them!

12 Lord, you will give us peace. For all our works have been wrought for us by you.

Lord, you give us peace and prosperity; everything we've achieved you have done for us.

13 O Lord our God, other lords have possessed us apart from you, but in you alone let us remember your name.

Lord our God, there have been other lords besides you who have ruled us, but you are the only one we worship.

14 Let not the dead live; let not the giants rise up again. For this reason, you have visited and destroyed them, and you have perished all remembrance of them.

They are dead, they will not live again; they will not rise from the grave. Lord, you punished them and destroyed them—even wiping out every memory about them.

15 You have been lenient to the people, O Lord, lenient to the people. But have you been glorified? You have removed all the limits of the earth.

You have made the nation grow, Lord, you have made the nation grow. You have expanded our borders of the land, and we honored you.

16 Lord, they have sought you in anguish. Your doctrine was with them, amid the tribulation of murmuring.

Lord, when we were suffering we came to you, pouring out our prayers like whispers as you disciplined us.

17 Like a woman who has conceived and is approaching the time for delivery, who, in anguish, cries out in her pains, so have we become before your face, O Lord.

Just as a pregnant woman giving birth tosses about and cries out in pain, that's what we were like in your presence, Lord.

18 We have conceived, and it is as if we were in labor, but we have given birth to wind. We have not brought forth salvation on the earth. For this reason, the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.

However, even though we became pregnant and we tossed about in pain, we gave birth to nothing but air. We did not bring about the salvation of the earth, and the people of the world have not become alive.

19 Your dead shall live. My slain will rise again. Be awakened, and give praise, you who live in the dust! For your dew is the dew of the light, and you shall be dragged down to the land of the giants, to ruination.

But those who died in you, Lord, will live! Their bodies will rise again! Wake up, and sing for joy, you people sleeping in the dust, for the dew you receive is like the dew of the morning giving life to those in the grave.

20 Go, my people! Enter your chambers. Close your doors behind you. Conceal yourselves for a very brief time, until the indignation has passed over you.

My people, go inside your homes and close your doors behind you. Hide there for a little while until the fury has passed.

21 For behold, the Lord will go forth from his place, so that he may visit the iniquity of each inhabitant of the earth against him. And the earth will reveal its blood, and it will no longer cover its slain.

Watch out! The Lord is coming from where he lives to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will reveal the blood that has been shed on it; the earth won't hide those who have been killed any no longer.”