Isaiah 26-27

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

We have a strong city;
    he sets up walls and bulwarks as a safeguard.^(A)
2 Open the gates,
    so that the righteous nation that maintains faithfulness
    may enter in.^(B)
3 Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace,
    in peace because they trust in you.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
    for in the Lord God^[a]
    you have an everlasting rock.^(C)
5 For he has brought low
    the inhabitants of the height;
    the lofty city he lays low.
He lays it low to the ground,
    casts it to the dust.^(D)
6 The foot tramples it,
    the feet of the poor,
    the steps of the needy.^(E)

⁷ The way of the righteous is level;
    straight is the path of the righteous that you clear.^(F)
8 In the path of your judgments,
    O Lord, we have placed hope;
your name and your renown
    are the soul’s desire.^(G)
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
    my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.^(H)
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
    they do not learn righteousness;
they corrupt what is upright on the earth
    and do not see the majesty of the Lord.^(I)
11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
    but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed.
    Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.^(J)
12 O Lord, may you ordain peace for us,
    for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.^(K)
13 O Lord our God,
    other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    but we acknowledge your name alone.^(L)
14 The dead do not live;
    shades do not rise
because you have punished and destroyed them
    and wiped out all memory of them.^(M)
15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord;
    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
    you have enlarged all the borders of the land.^(N)

¹⁶ O Lord, in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a prayer^[b]
    when your chastening was on them.^(O)
17 Like a woman with child
    about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we because of you, O Lord;^(P)
18     we were with child; we writhed,
    but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
    and no one is born to inhabit the world.^(Q)
19 Your dead shall live; their corpses^[c] shall rise.
    Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy!^[d]
For your dew is a radiant dew,
    and the earth will give birth to those long dead.^[e](R)

²⁰ Come, my people, enter your chambers,
    and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
    until the wrath is past.^(S)
21 For the Lord comes out from his place
    to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth will disclose the blood shed on it
    and will no longer cover its slain.^(T)

² On that day:
A pleasant vineyard—sing about it!^(V)
3     I, the Lord, am its keeper;
    every moment I water it.
I guard it night and day
    so that no one can harm it;^(W)
4     I have no wrath.
If it gives me thorns and briers,
    I will march to battle against it.
    I will burn it up.^(X)
5 Or else let it cling to me for protection;
    let it make peace with me;
    let it make peace with me.^(Y)

⁶ In days to come^[f] Jacob shall take root;
    Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
    and fill the whole world with fruit.^(Z)

⁷ Has he struck them down as he struck down those who struck them?
    Or have they been killed as their killers^[g] were killed?^(AA)
8 By expulsion,^[h] by exile you struggled against them;
    with his fierce blast he removed them in the day of the east wind.^(AB)
9 Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be expiated,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altars
    like chalkstones crushed to pieces;
    no sacred poles^[i] or incense altars will remain standing.^(AC)
10 For the fortified city is solitary,
    a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
the calves graze there;
    there they lie down and strip its branches.^(AD)
11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
    women come and make a fire of them.
For this is a people without understanding;
    therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
    he who formed them will show them no favor.^(AE)