Isaiah 26

“We have a strong city.

God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks.

²Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter:

the one which keeps faith.

³You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace,

because he trusts in you.

⁴Trust in the LORD forever;

for in the LORD, the LORD, is an everlasting Rock.

⁵For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city.

He lays it low.

He lays it low even to the ground.

He brings it even to the dust.

⁶The foot shall tread it down,

even the feet of the poor

and the steps of the needy.”

⁷The way of the just is uprightness.

You who are upright make the path of the righteous level.

⁸Yes, in the way of your judgements, the LORD, we have waited for you.

Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.

⁹With my soul I have desired you in the night.

Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly;

for when your judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰Let favour be shown to the wicked,

yet he will not learn righteousness.

In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully,

and will not see the LORD’s majesty.

¹¹The LORD, your hand is lifted up, yet they don’t see;

but they will see your zeal for the people and be disappointed.

Yes, fire will consume your adversaries.

¹²The LORD, you will ordain peace for us,

for you have also done all our work for us.

¹³The LORD our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us,

but we will only acknowledge your name.

¹⁴The dead shall not live.

The departed spirits shall not rise.

Therefore you have visited and destroyed them,

and caused all memory of them to perish.

¹⁵You have increased the nation, O LORD.

You have increased the nation!

You are glorified!

You have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶LORD, in trouble they have visited you.

They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.

¹⁷Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery,

is in pain and cries out in her pangs,

so we have been before you, LORD.

¹⁸We have been with child.

We have been in pain.

We gave birth, it seems, only to wind.

We have not worked any deliverance in the earth;

neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

¹⁹Your dead shall live.

Their dead bodies shall arise.

Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust;

for your dew is like the dew of herbs,

and the earth will cast out the departed spirits.

²⁰Come, my people, enter into your rooms,

and shut your doors behind you.

Hide yourself for a little moment,

until the indignation is past.

²¹For, behold, the LORD comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.

The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.