Isaiah Chapter 26 - The Song of Perfect Peace
A song of quiet trust that turns into a promise of resurrection.
This chapter records a song sung in the land of Judah about a strong city whose walls are salvation itself, opening with the well-known line, Isaiah 26:3, that God keeps in perfect peace the mind stayed on Him.
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: we have a strong city; salvation will he appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Open you the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in.
You will keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on you]; because he trusts in you.
Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock.
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.
The foot shall tread it down; even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
The way of the just is uprightness: you that are upright do direct the path of the just.
Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, have we waited for you; to your name, even to your memorial [name], is the desire of our soul.
With my soul have I desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully, and will not see the majesty of Yahweh.
Yahweh, 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.
Yahweh, you will ordain peace for us; for you have also worked all our works for us.
Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us; but by you only will we make mention of your name.
[They are] dead, they shall not live; [they are] deceased, they shall not rise: therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and made all memory of them to perish.
You have increased the nation, O Yahweh, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.
Yahweh, in trouble have they visited you; they poured out a prayer [when] your chastening was on them.
Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Yahweh.
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.
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.
Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation be past.
For, behold, Yahweh 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.