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16 Lord, people ·remember [seek; come to] you when they are in trouble;
    they ·say quiet prayers to you [or utter incantations] when you punish them.
17 Lord, ·when we are with you [or because of you],
    we are like a woman giving birth to a baby;
    she cries and has pain from the birth.
18 ·In the same way [L We were pregnant/conceived], we ·had pain [writhed; strained].
    We gave birth, but only to wind.
We ·don’t bring [or can’t bring; haven’t brought] salvation to the ·land [earth]
    ·or given birth to new people for the world [L nor have the inhabitants of the earth fallen].
19 Your dead will live again;
    their bodies will rise from death.
You who ·lie in the ground [L dwell in the dust],
    wake up and ·be happy [shout joyfully]!
·The dew covering you [L Your dew] is ·like the dew of a new day [L a dew of lights];
    the ·ground [earth] will give birth to the dead.

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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)

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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.

16 Lord, they came to you in their distress;(A)
    when you disciplined(B) them,
    they could barely whisper(C) a prayer.[a]
17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth(D)
    writhes and cries out in her pain,
    so were we in your presence, Lord.
18 We were with child, we writhed in labor,
    but we gave birth(E) to wind.
We have not brought salvation(F) to the earth,
    and the people of the world have not come to life.(G)

19 But your dead(H) will live, Lord;
    their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust(I)
    wake up and shout for joy—
your dew(J) is like the dew of the morning;
    the earth will give birth to her dead.(K)

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 26:16 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.