14 (A)The dead will not live, the [a]departed spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have (B)punished and destroyed them,
And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.
15 (C)You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have (D)extended all the borders of the land.
16 O Lord, they sought You (E)in distress;
They [b]could only whisper a prayer,
Your chastening was upon them.
17 (F)As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains,
Thus were we before You, O Lord.
18 We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,
We (G)gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were (H)inhabitants of the world [c]born.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 26:14 Or shades
  2. Isaiah 26:16 Lit sound forth a whisper
  3. Isaiah 26:18 Lit fallen