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Judah’s Song of Victory

26 On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;
    he sets up walls and bulwarks as a safeguard.(A)
Open the gates,
    so that the righteous nation that maintains faithfulness
    may enter in.(B)
Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace,
    in peace because they trust in you.
Trust in the Lord forever,
    for in the Lord God[a]
    you have an everlasting rock.(C)
For he has brought low
    the inhabitants of the height;
    the lofty city he lays low.
He lays it low to the ground,
    casts it to the dust.(D)
The foot tramples it,
    the feet of the poor,
    the steps of the needy.(E)

The way of the righteous is level;
    straight is the path of the righteous that you clear.(F)
In the path of your judgments,
    O Lord, we have placed hope;
your name and your renown
    are the soul’s desire.(G)
My soul yearns for you in the night;
    my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.(H)
10 If favor is shown to the wicked,
    they do not learn righteousness;
they corrupt what is upright on the earth
    and do not see the majesty of the Lord.(I)
11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
    but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed.
    Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.(J)
12 O Lord, may you ordain peace for us,
    for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.(K)
13 O Lord our God,
    other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    but we acknowledge your name alone.(L)
14 The dead do not live;
    shades do not rise
because you have punished and destroyed them
    and wiped out all memory of them.(M)
15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord;
    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
    you have enlarged all the borders of the land.(N)

16 O Lord, in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a prayer[b]
    when your chastening was on them.(O)
17 Like a woman with child
    about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we because of you, O Lord;(P)
18     we were with child; we writhed,
    but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
    and no one is born to inhabit the world.(Q)
19 Your dead shall live; their corpses[c] shall rise.
    Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy![d]
For your dew is a radiant dew,
    and the earth will give birth to those long dead.[e](R)

20 Come, my people, enter your chambers,
    and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
    until the wrath is past.(S)
21 For the Lord comes out from his place
    to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth will disclose the blood shed on it
    and will no longer cover its slain.(T)

Footnotes

  1. 26.4 Heb in Yah, the Lord
  2. 26.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  3. 26.19 Cn Compare Syr Tg: Heb my corpse
  4. 26.19 Q ms Compare Gk Syr: MT dust, awake and shout for joy!
  5. 26.19 Heb to the shades