Isaiah 26

On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city. God makes his saving power its walls and its outer defenses.

1In 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.

Note"In that day" is a recurring marker in Isaiah for the future moment when God acts decisively; it does not point to a dated event. Judah is the southern of the two Israelite kingdoms, with Jerusalem as its capital. "Walls and outer defenses" translates two words for a city's fortifications: the main wall and the lower rampart or forewall outside it.

2Open the gates, so that the nation that does what is right may come in, the nation that stays faithful to the truth.

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

3You keep a person in perfect peace when his mind rests firmly on you, because he trusts you.

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

NoteThe Hebrew simply repeats the word shalom ("peace, peace") a way of making a term emphatic, hence "perfect peace." Shalom means more than the absence of conflict: it covers wholeness, safety and everything being as it should be.

4Trust the LORD forever, because the LORD God is strength that lasts forever, a rock that never gives way.

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

Note"LORD" in capitals stands where the Hebrew has God's personal name, YHWH, which Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud. Here the Hebrew doubles it, using a short form and the full name together, which the King James renders "the LORD JEHOVAH." "Rock" is a standard Hebrew image for a place of refuge (a crag you can shelter in or on), not simply a hard object.

5For he brings down those who live up high. He lays the proud city low; he lays it low, right to the ground, and brings it down into the dust.

5For 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.

NoteThe Hebrew does not name the city. It is a stock image for any arrogant imperial capital, and hearers would have supplied whichever great power currently dominated them.

6Feet trample it down, the feet of people who were crushed, the steps of the poor.

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

7The road the righteous walk is level and straight. You, who are completely upright, make the path of the righteous smooth.

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

8Yes, LORD, we have waited for you as we walk in the way of your judgments. Your name, and remembering you, is what we long for deep inside.

8Yea, 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.

Note"Judgments" here does not mean condemnation. The Hebrew word covers God's rulings and his acts of setting things right, the decisions by which he governs. "Your name, and remembering you" pairs two words for God's public reputation: what he is called and what he is known for having done.

9My whole self longs for you in the night. My spirit inside me looks for you at dawn. For when your judgments come on the earth, the people of the world learn to do what is right.

9With 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.

10Even when kindness is shown to a wicked man, he still does not learn to do what is right. In a land where people live rightly, he keeps acting unfairly, and he never sees how great the LORD is.

10Let 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.

11LORD, your hand is raised to act, but they do not see it. They will see it, and they will be ashamed when they face your burning care for your people. Yes, the fire meant for your enemies will burn them up.

11LORD, 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.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind the King James "envy" and the rendering's "burning care" means a fierce, hot devotion, the same word can be translated zeal or jealousy depending on context. It describes intense attachment, whether protective or possessive.

12LORD, you will set up peace for us, because everything we have accomplished, you have done for us.

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

13LORD our God, other masters besides you have ruled over us, but your name is the only name we speak.

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

Note"Other masters" is deliberately open in the Hebrew: it can mean foreign kings who ruled the land, or other gods that were served there, or both at once. To "speak someone's name" meant publicly acknowledging them as your ruler or your god.

14They are dead now; they will not live again. They are departed spirits; they will not rise. So you stepped in and destroyed them, and wiped out every memory of them.

14They 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.

Note"Departed spirits" translates the Hebrew rephaim, the shadowy dead who were pictured as existing in a weakened, powerless state below the earth. The point is that these particular rulers are gone for good.

15You have made the nation larger, LORD; you have made the nation larger. You have gained honor for yourself. You have pushed out all the borders of the land far away.

15Thou 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.

NoteThe last line is genuinely uncertain in the Hebrew. The same words can mean God extended the country's borders far out, or that he removed the people far away: that is, into exile. Translators divide over which is meant.

16LORD, when they were in trouble they came looking for you. When your correction was on them, they poured out a whispered prayer.

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

NoteThe Hebrew word rendered "whispered prayer" is rare and hard to pin down; it suggests a low, muttered or murmured utterance, the sound of someone praying under their breath under pressure.

17Like a pregnant woman close to the time of birth, who twists in pain and cries out as the pains come, that is how we have been in front of you, LORD.

17Like 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.

18We were pregnant, we twisted in pain, but all we gave birth to was wind. We have not brought any rescue to the earth, and no new people have been born into the world.

18We 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.

Note"Giving birth to wind" is an idiom for labor that produces nothing (all the pain of childbirth with an empty result. The final clause is disputed: the Hebrew can mean either that no new inhabitants were born into the world, or that the world's inhabitants did not fall) that is, the enemy was never brought down.

19Your dead will live. My dead body will rise with them. Wake up and sing for joy, you who lie in the dust! For your dew is like the dew that falls on plants at dawn, and the earth will give up its dead.

19Thy 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.

Note"Those who lie in the dust" means the dead; dust stands for the grave throughout the Hebrew Bible. The word for "dew" of plants is ambiguous in Hebrew, the same consonants can mean herbs or lights, so it may be the dew that settles on vegetation or the dew of dawn. Dew was the one reliable moisture in a dry summer, so it stands for life returning without rain.

20Come, my people, go into your inner rooms and shut the doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little while, until the anger has passed by.

20Come, 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.

NoteThe inner rooms of an ancient house were windowless and furthest from the street, the place you took shelter in a raid or a storm. The instruction echoes the night of the Passover, when Israelites stayed indoors while judgment passed by.

21For look, the LORD is coming out from where he lives to punish the people of the earth for their wrongdoing. The earth will uncover the blood spilled on it, and will hide its murdered people no longer.

21For, 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.

NoteCovering spilled blood with earth was how a killer hid a murder, and Hebrew thought held that unavenged blood cried out from the ground until the death was answered for (as with Abel in Genesis 4). Here the ground itself stops concealing the evidence.