Isaiah 26:16-21

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁶ O Lord, in distress they sought you;
    they poured out a prayer^[a]
    when your chastening was on them.^(A)
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;^(B)
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.^(C)
19 Your dead shall live; their corpses^[b] shall rise.
    Those who dwell in the dust will awake and shout for joy!^[c]
For your dew is a radiant dew,
    and the earth will give birth to those long dead.^[d](D)

²⁰ Come, my people, enter your chambers,
    and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
    until the wrath is past.^(E)
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.^(F)