Isaiah 26:3-27:6

English Standard Version

⁷ The path of the righteous is level;
    ^(E)you make level the way of the righteous.
⁸ In the path of your judgments,
    O Lord, we wait for you;
^(F)your name and ^(G)remembrance
    are the desire of our soul.
⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night;
    my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
^(H)For when your judgments are in the earth,
    the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
^10 (I)If favor is shown to the wicked,
    he does not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly
    and does not see the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹ O Lord, ^(J)your hand is lifted up,
    but ^(K)they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
    Let ^(L)the fire for your adversaries consume them.
¹² O Lord, you will ordain ^(M)peace for us,
    for you have indeed done for us all our works.
¹³ O Lord our God,
    ^(N)other lords besides you have ruled over us,
    ^(O)but your name alone we bring to remembrance.
¹⁴ They are dead, they will not live;
    they are shades, they will not arise;
to that end you have visited them with destruction
    and wiped out all remembrance of them.
^15 (P)But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
    you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
    ^(Q)you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶ O Lord, ^(R)in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a whispered prayer
    when your discipline was upon them.
^17 (S)Like a pregnant woman
    who writhes and cries out in her pangs
    when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
^{18     (T)}we were pregnant, we writhed,
    but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
    and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
^19 (U)Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
    You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For ^(V)your dew is a dew of light,
    and the earth will give birth to the dead.

²⁰ Come, my people, enter your chambers,
    and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves ^(W)for a little while
    until the fury has passed by.
^21 (X)For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place
    to punish the inhabitants of ^(Y)the earth for their iniquity,
and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
    and will no more cover its slain.

² In that day,
^(AD)“A pleasant vineyard,^{[a] (AE)}sing of it!
³     I, the Lord, am its keeper;
    every moment I water it.
    Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
⁴     I have no wrath.
^(AF)Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
    I would march against them,
    I would burn them up together.
⁵ Or let them lay hold of my protection,
    let them make peace with me,
    let them make peace with me.”

^6 (AG)In days to come^[b] Jacob shall take root,
    Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
    and fill the whole world with fruit.