Isaiah 26

1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: we have a strong city; he will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in.
3 You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you; because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the Lord forever; for in God, the Lord, is an everlasting Rock.
5 For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city: he lays it low, he lays it low even to the ground; he brings it even to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down; even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
7 The way of the just is uprightness: you that are upright direct the path of the just.
8 Yes, in the way of your judgments, O Lord, have we waited for you; to your name, even to your memorial name, is the desire of our soul.
9 With my soul I have desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10 Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see the majesty of the Lord.
11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see: but they shall see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed; yes, fire shall devour your adversaries.
12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us; for you have also worked all our works for us.
13 O Lord our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us; but by you only will we make mention of your name.
14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore you have visited and destroyed them, and made all memory of them to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O Lord, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.
16 O Lord, in trouble they have visited you; they poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
17 Like a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so have we been before you, the Lord.
18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
19 Your dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.
20 Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself for a little while, until the indignation be past.
21 For, behold, the Lord comes forth 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.