Isaiah 26-27

A Song of Praise 1In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts.

2Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith.

3You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

4Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.

5He humbles those who dwell on high, he lays the lofty city low; he levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust.

6Feet trample it down— the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor.

7The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.

8Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, Or judgments we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.

9My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.

10But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the LORD .

11LORD, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

12LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

13LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone do we honor.

14They are now dead, they live no more; their spirits do not rise. You punished them and brought them to ruin; you wiped out all memory of them.

15You have enlarged the nation, LORD ; you have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for yourself; you have extended all the borders of the land.

16LORD, they came to you in their distress; when you disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer. The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.

17As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, LORD .

18We were with child, we writhed in labor, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life.

19But your dead will live, LORD ; their bodies will rise— let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy— your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.

20Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. 21See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer.

Deliverance of Israel 1In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword— his fierce, great and powerful sword— Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.

2In that day— “Sing about a fruitful vineyard:

3I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.

4I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire.

5Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.”

6In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

7Has the LORD struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?

8By warfare See Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. and exile you contend with her— with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows.

9By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like limestone crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah or incense altars will be left standing.

10The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.

11When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor. 12In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. 13And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.