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16 
O Lord, they sought You in distress;
They managed only a prayerful whisper
When Your discipline was upon them.
17 
As a woman with child approaches the time to give birth,
She is in pain and struggles and cries out in her labor,
So we were before You, O Lord.
18 
We have been with child, we have twisted and struggled in labor;
We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish salvation for the earth,
Nor were inhabitants of the world [a]born.
19 
Your dead will live;
[b]Their dead bodies will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy!
For your dew is a dew of [celestial] light [heavenly, supernatural],
And the earth will give birth to the spirits of the dead.(A)

20 
Come, my people, enter your chambers
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide for a little while
Until the [Lord’s] [c]wrath is past.
21 
Listen carefully, the Lord is about to come out of His [heavenly] place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their wickedness [their sin, their injustice, their wrongdoing];
The earth will reveal the [innocent] blood shed upon her
And will no longer cover her slain.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 26:18 Lit fallen.
  2. Isaiah 26:19 So with some ancient versions; MT reads My dead body.
  3. Isaiah 26:20 Lit curse.

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