Isaiah, 26

1. That day, this song will be sung in Judah: 'We have a fortress city, the walls and ramparts provide safety.

1. In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will [God] appoint [for] walls and bulwarks.

2. Open the gates! Let the upright nation come in, the nation that keeps faith!

2. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

3. This is the plan decreed: you will guarantee peace, the peace entrusted to you.

3. Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on thee]: because he trusteth in thee.

4. Trust in Yahweh for ever, for Yahweh is a rock for ever.

4. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH [is] everlasting strength:

5. He has brought low the dwellers on the heights, the lofty citadel; he lays it low, brings it to the ground, flings it down in the dust.

5. For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, [even] to the ground; he bringeth it [even] to the dust.

6. It will be trodden under foot, by the feet of the needy, the steps of the weak.'

6. The foot shall tread it down, [even] the feet of the poor, [and] the steps of the needy.

7. The path of the Upright One is honesty; you smooth the honest way of the upright.

7. The way of the just [is] uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.

8. Following the path of your judgements, Yahweh, we set our hopes in you, your name, your memory are all our soul desires.

8. Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of [our] soul [is] to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

9. At night my soul longs for you and my spirit within me seeks you out; for when your judgements appear on earth the inhabitants of the world learn what saving justice is.

9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments [are] in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

10. If pity is shown to the wicked without his learning what saving justice is, he will act wrongly in the land of right conduct and not see the majesty of Yahweh.

10. Let favour be shewed to the wicked, [yet] will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

11. Yahweh, your hand is raised but they do not see! The antagonists of your people will look and grow pale; with your fiery wrath you will devour your enemies.

11. LORD, [when] thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: [but] they shall see, and be ashamed for [their] envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

12. Yahweh, you will grant us peace, having completed all our undertakings for us.

12. LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

13. Yahweh our God, other lords than you have ruled us but, loyal to you alone, we invoke your name.

13. O LORD our God, [other] lords beside thee have had dominion over us: [but] by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

14. The dead will not come back to life, the shadows will not rise again, for you have punished them, annihilated them, wiping out their very memory.

14. [They are] dead, they shall not live; [they are] deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

15. You have made the nation larger, Yahweh, made the nation larger and won yourself glory, you have rolled back the frontiers of the country.

15. Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed [it] far [unto] all the ends of the earth.

16. Yahweh, in distress they had recourse to you, they expended themselves in prayer, since your punishment was on them.

16. LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer [when] thy chastening [was] upon them.

17. As a pregnant woman near her time of delivery writhes and cries out in her pangs, so have we been, Yahweh, in your eyes:

17. Like as a woman with child, [that] draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, [and] crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.

18. we have been pregnant, we have writhed, but we have given birth only to wind: we have not given salvation to the earth, no inhabitants for the world have been brought to birth.

18. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

19. Your dead will come back to life, your corpses will rise again. Wake up and sing, you dwellers in the dust, for your dew will be a radiant dew, but the earth will give birth to the shades.

19. Thy dead [men] shall live, [together with] my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew [is as] the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

20. Go, my people, go to your private room, shut yourselves in. Hide yourselves a little while until the retribution has passed.

20. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

21. For see, Yahweh emerges from his dwelling to punish the inhabitants of earth for their guilt; and the earth will reveal the blood shed on it and no longer hide its slain.

21. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.