Isaiah 26
1 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!
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.
2 Open the gates so the nation who follows the right can come in, the nation that stays faithful.
Open the gates, and let the just people who guard the truth enter.
3 You will keep in complete peace those who keep their minds focused on you, because they trust in you.
The old error has gone away. You will serve peace: peace, for we have hoped in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.
You have trusted in the Lord for all eternity, in the Lord God almighty forever.
5 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.
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.
6 The poor tread it underfoot; the oppressed walk on top of it.
The foot will tread it down: the feet of the poor, the steps of the indigent.
7 You God, do what is right, and you straighten out the way for those who live right; you smooth out their path.
The path of the just is upright; the difficult path of the just is right to walk in.
8 Yes, we follow your instructions, Lord, we put our hope in you. What we most want is to remember you and your wonderful character.
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.
9 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.
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.
10 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.
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.
11 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!
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.
12 Lord, you give us peace and prosperity; everything we've achieved you have done for us.
Lord, you will give us peace. For all our works have been wrought for us by you.
13 Lord our God, there have been other lords besides you who have ruled us, but you are the only one we worship.
O Lord our God, other lords have possessed us apart from you, but in you alone let us remember your name.
14 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.
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.
15 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.
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.
16 Lord, when we were suffering we came to you, pouring out our prayers like whispers as you disciplined us.
Lord, they have sought you in anguish. Your doctrine was with them, amid the tribulation of murmuring.
17 Just as a pregnant woman giving birth tosses about and cries out in pain, that's what we were like in your presence, Lord.
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.
18 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.
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.
19 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.
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.
20 My people, go inside your homes and close your doors behind you. Hide there for a little while until the fury has passed.
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.
21 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.”
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.
