Isaiah 26-28

New American Standard Bible

⁷ The ^(M)way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, ^(N)make the path of the righteous level.
⁸ Indeed, while following the way of ^(O)Your judgments, Lord,
We have waited for You eagerly;
^(P)Your name, and ^(Q)remembering You, is the desire of our souls.
^9 (R)At night ^[d]my soul longs for You,
Indeed, ^[e]my spirit within me ^(S)seeks You diligently;
For when the earth ^[f]experiences Your judgments,
The inhabitants of the world ^(T)learn righteousness.
¹⁰ Though the wicked person is shown compassion,
He does not ^(U)learn righteousness;
He ^(V)deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,
And does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹ Lord, Your hand is lifted up, yet they ^(W)do not see it.
^[g]They see ^(X)Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
Indeed, ^[h](Y)fire will devour Your enemies.
¹² Lord, You will establish ^(Z)peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all our works.
¹³ Lord, our God, ^(AA)other masters besides You have ruled us;
But through You alone we ^[i](AB)confess Your name.
^14 (AC)The dead will not live, the ^[j]departed spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have ^(AD)punished and destroyed them,
And You have eliminated all remembrance of them.
^15 (AE)You have increased the nation, Lord,
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have ^(AF)extended all the borders of the land.
¹⁶ Lord, they sought You ^(AG)in distress;
They ^[k]could only whisper a prayer,
Your discipline was upon them.
^17 (AH)As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains;
This is how we were before You, Lord.
¹⁸ We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,
We ^(AI)gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were ^(AJ)inhabitants of the world ^[l]born.
¹⁹ Your ^(AK)dead will live;
^[m]Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, ^(AL)awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the ^[n]dawn,
And the earth will ^[o]give birth to the ^[p]departed spirits.

²⁰ Come, my people, ^(AM)enter your rooms
And close your doors behind you;
Hide for a little ^[q](AN)while
Until ^(AO)indignation ^[r]runs its course.
²¹ For behold, the Lord is about to ^(AP)come out from His place
To ^(AQ)punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wrongdoing;
And the earth will ^(AR)reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain.

² On that day,
“A ^[u](AV)vineyard of beauty, sing of it!
³ I, the Lord, am its keeper;
^(AW)I water it every moment.
So that no one will ^[v]damage it,
I ^(AX)guard it night and day.
⁴ I have no wrath.
Should ^[w]someone give Me ^(AY)briars and thorns in battle,
Then I would step on them, ^(AZ)I would burn them ^[x]completely.
⁵ Or let him ^[y](BA)rely on My protection,
Let him make peace with Me,
Let him ^(BB)make peace with Me.”
^6 [z]In the days to come Jacob ^(BC)will take root,
Israel will ^(BD)blossom and sprout,
And they will fill the ^[aa]whole world with ^(BE)fruit.

⁷ Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has ^(BF)He struck them?
Or like the slaughter of His slain, ^[ab]have they been slain?
⁸ You contended with them ^[ac]by banishing them, by ^(BG)driving them away.
With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the ^(BH)east wind.
⁹ Therefore through this Jacob’s wrongdoing will be ^(BI)forgiven;
And this will be ^[ad]the full price of the ^[ae](BJ)pardoning of his sin:
When he makes all the ^(BK)altar stones like pulverized chalk stones;
When ^[af]Asherim and incense altars will not stand.
¹⁰ For the fortified city is ^(BL)isolated,
A ^[ag]homestead deserted and abandoned like the desert;
^(BM)There the calf will graze,
And there it will lie down and ^[ah]feed on its branches.
¹¹ When its ^(BN)limbs are dry, they are broken off;
Women come and make a fire with them,
For they are not a people of ^(BO)discernment,
Therefore ^(BP)their Maker ^(BQ)will not have compassion on them.
And their Creator will not be gracious to them.

⁹ “To ^(CO)whom would He teach knowledge,
And to whom would He interpret the message?
Those just ^(CP)weaned from milk?
Those just taken from the breast?
¹⁰ For He says,
‘^[aq](CQ)Order on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there.’”
¹¹ Indeed, He will speak to this people
Through ^(CR)stammering lips and a foreign tongue,
¹² He who said to them, “This is the ^(CS)place of quiet, give rest to the weary,”
And, “This is the resting place,” but they would not listen.
¹³ So the word of the Lord to them will be,
“^[ar]Order on order, order on order,
Line on line, line on line,
A little here, a little there,”
That they may go and ^(CT)stumble backward, be broken, snared, and taken captive.

²³ Listen and hear my voice,
Pay attention and hear my words.
²⁴ Does the ^[bh]farmer plow ^[bi]continually to plant seed?
Does he continually ^[bj]turn and break up his ground?
²⁵ Does he not level its surface
And sow dill and scatter ^(DS)cumin
And ^[bk]plant ^(DT)wheat in rows,
Barley in its place and rye within its ^[bl]area?
²⁶ For his God instructs and teaches him properly.
²⁷ For dill is not threshed with a ^(DU)threshing sledge,
Nor is the cartwheel ^[bm]driven over cumin;
But dill is beaten out with a rod, and cumin with a club.
²⁸ Grain for bread is crushed,
Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever.
Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually ^[bn]damage it,
He does not thresh it longer.
²⁹ This also comes from the Lord of armies,
Who has made His counsel ^(DV)wonderful and His wisdom ^(DW)great.