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The way of the just is smooth;
    the path of the just you make level.(A)
The course of your judgments, Lord, we await;
    your name and your memory are the desire of our souls.
My soul yearns for you at night,
    yes, my spirit within me seeks you at dawn;
When your judgment comes upon the earth,
    the world’s inhabitants learn justice.(B)

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12 Lord, you will decree peace for us,
    for you have accomplished all we have done.(A)

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16 Lord, oppressed by your punishment,
    we cried out in anguish under your discipline.(A)
17 As a woman about to give birth
    writhes and cries out in pain,
    so were we before you, Lord.(B)
18 We conceived and writhed in pain,
    giving birth only to wind;
Salvation we have not achieved for the earth,
    no inhabitants for the world were born.(C)
19 [a]But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise!
    Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust!
For your dew is a dew of light,
    and you cause the land of shades to give birth.(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 26:19 This verse refers not to resurrection of the dead, but to the restoration of the people; cf. Ez 37. The population of Judah was radically reduced by the slaughter and deportations that the historical disasters of the late eighth and seventh centuries B.C. brought upon the country. In this context, a major concern for the future was for an increase in the population, a rebirth of the nation’s life.