Isaiah 26

1On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: Ours is a strong city; he makes salvation its walls and ramparts.

2Throw the gates open, and let a righteous nation come in, a nation that stays faithful.

3You guard in complete peace the mind that stands firm, because it trusts in you.

4Trust in Yahweh always and forever, for in Yah, Yahweh, is a rock for all ages.

5For he has pulled down those who live in the heights; the towering city he humbles, humbles it to the ground, and makes it touch the dust.

6It is trampled underfoot—by the feet of the afflicted, by the footsteps of the poor.

7The road of the righteous runs straight; you who are upright level the track the righteous walk.

8Yes, Yahweh, as we walk the way of your judgments we wait eagerly for you; your name and the remembrance of you are what our souls long for.

9In the night my soul longs for you; yes, my spirit within me searches for you at dawn. For when your judgments come to the earth, the world’s inhabitants learn righteousness.

10Though the wicked receive grace, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land where things are right, they do wrong, and they do not see Yahweh’s majesty.

11Yahweh, your hand is raised high, yet they do not notice. Let them see your passion for your people and be put to shame; let the fire kept for your foes devour them.

12Yahweh, you will set peace in place for us, for everything we have achieved has been your work for us.

13Yahweh our God, lords other than you have been our masters, but by you alone do we call your name to mind.

14The dead will not come back to life; the shades will not rise. That is why you called them to account and destroyed them, and erased every memory of them.

15You have added to the nation, Yahweh; you have added to the nation and won glory for yourself; you have pushed back all the boundaries of the land.

16Yahweh, in their trouble they came looking for you; under your discipline they poured out a whispered prayer.

17As a woman with child, when her time to deliver draws near, twists in pain and screams in her labor, so we have been before you, Yahweh.

18We were with child and in labor, but all we delivered was wind. We have worked no salvation in the land, and no inhabitants of the world have come forth.

19Your dead will come to life; my corpses will stand up. Wake and sing out, you who lie in the dust! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will bring the shades to birth.

20Go, my people, into your inner rooms and close your door behind you. Hide for just a moment, until the wrath is over.

21For see, Yahweh is coming out of his dwelling to call the people of the earth to account for their guilt. The earth will lay bare the blood spilled on it and will hide its slain no longer.