A song to be sung in Judah
26
📚In that day 📖 this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city 📖.
God will appoint salvation 📖
for walls and bulwarks.
2 📚Open 📖 the gates,
so that the righteous 📖 nation
which keeps the truth may come in.
3 📚You will keep him
in perfect peace,
whose mind rests on you,
because he trusts in you.
4 📚Trust in the LORD forever;
for in Yah 📖, the LORD,
is eternal 📖 strength.
5 📚For he brings down
those who dwell on high.
He lays low the lofty city,
he lays it low,
to the ground,
he brings it to the very dust.
6 📚The foot will trample it down,
the feet of the poor,
and the steps of the needy.
26:6 Cruel oppressors will not have the upper hand forever.⚜
7 📚The way of the just is uprightness.
O most upright One,
you make the path of the just level 📖.
8 📚Yes, following the way
of your judgments,
O LORD, we have waited for you.
The desire of our soul is
for your name,
and for the remembrance of you.
26:8 The second part of this verse can be true of us only if the first part is also true of us.⚜
9 📚With my soul I have desired you
in the night 📖;
yes, with my spirit in me
I will seek you early 📖.
For when your judgments are
in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world
will learn righteousness 📖.
10 📚If grace is shown
to the wicked,
still he will not learn
righteousness.
He will deal unjustly in an
upright land,
and will not perceive the majesty
of the LORD.
26:10 This has been true of all nations from the beginning (Rom 1:20-25), and was true of Israel. God’s grace has been shown to men in many ways (Ps 100:1-5; 145:9; Matt 5:45; Acts 14:17; Rom 2:4).⚜
11 📚LORD,
when your hand 📖 is lifted up,
they will not see;
but they will see your
zeal 📖 for the people,
and be put to shame;
yes, the fire reserved
for your enemies will
consume them 📖.
26:9-11 In v 9 Isaiah speaks for himself.⚜
12 📚LORD,
you will establish peace for us,
for you have also done
all our works in us 📖.
13 📚O LORD our God,
other lords 📖 beside
you have had dominion
over us,
but through you alone
we will make mention
of your name.
14 📚They are dead,
they will not live.
They are deceased,
they will not stand up,
for you have punished and
destroyed them,
and have wiped out
all memory of them.
26:14 God will rid the earth of all evil rulers, human or supernatural, and will Himself reign over His people.⚜
15 📚You have increased 📖
the nation,
O LORD, you have increased
the nation.
You are glorified.
You have extended
all the borders of the land.
16 📚LORD,
in trouble they sought you.
They poured out a prayer
when your correction was
on them.
17 📚As a woman with child
who draws near the time
for her delivery is in pain,
and cries out in her pains,
so we have been in your sight,
O LORD.
18 📚We have been with child,
we have been in pain,
we have, as it were,
given birth to wind.
We have not produced any
deliverance on the earth;
nor have the inhabitants
of the world been born
through us.
26:16-18 A confession of their weakness and failure. Their prayers were like a mere whisper. They produced nothing by their pains and efforts. They failed in the supreme task God gave them (v 18). Israel was to be the channel of blessing and salvation to the world (John 4:22; Rom 3:1-2; 9:4-5). The Lord Jesus of Israel made up for the failure of the people of Israel. “Been born” (v 18) – or “fallen”.⚜
19 📚Your dead will live.
Together with my dead body
they will rise.
Awake and sing,
you who dwell in the dust!
For your dew is like the dew
of the morning 📖,
and the earth will cause
the dead to fall out.
26:12-19 Isaiah speaks for the Jews of that future time referred to in v 1.⚜
20 📚Come, my people,
enter your rooms 📖,
and shut your doors behind you.
Hide yourselves as if for a little while,
until the indignation is past.
21 📚For, see,
the LORD comes out of his place
to punish the inhabitants
of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth will also disclose
its blood,
and will no longer conceal her slain.