Isaiah 26
New Life Version
A Song of Trust in God
26 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city. The Lord saves us and puts up walls to keep us safe. 2 Open the gates, that the nation that is right with God may come in, the one that keeps faithful. 3 You will keep the man in perfect peace whose mind is kept on You, because he trusts in You. 4 Trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord God is a Rock that lasts forever. 5 For He has brought down low those who live on a high place, the high city. He lays it low. He lays it low to the ground. He throws it to the dust. 6 It will be crushed under foot, under the feet of those who have suffered and the steps of those who cannot help themselves.”
7 The way of the man who is right with God is smooth. O Upright One, make the path straight of those who are right with You. 8 While following in Your ways, O Lord, we have waited for You. To remember You and Your name is the desire of our souls. 9 My soul has a desire for You in the night. Yes, my spirit within me looks for You in the morning. For when you punish the earth, the people of the world learn what is right and good. 10 When favor is shown to the sinful, he does not learn what is right and good. He goes on doing what is wrong in the land of those who are right. He does not see the wonderful power of the Lord.
11 O Lord, Your hand is lifted up but they do not see it. Let them see Your care for Your people and be ashamed. Let fire destroy those who hate You. 12 O Lord, You will give us peace, for You have done all our works for us. 13 O Lord our God, other lords than You have ruled us, but Your name alone is the One we honor. 14 They are dead, and will not live. Their spirits will not return. So You have punished and destroyed them. You have caused them all to be forgotten. 15 You have made the nation great, O Lord. You have made the nation great. You have received much praise. You have made the land larger. 16 O Lord, they looked for You in their trouble. They could only say a quiet prayer while You were punishing them. 17 As the woman who is going to have a baby comes close to the time to give birth, she suffers and cries out in her pains. This is how we were before You, O Lord. 18 We suffered in pain. We gave birth, as it were, only to wind. We could not bring the world out of its trouble. And no people of the earth were born. 19 Your dead will live. Their dead bodies will rise. You who lie in the dust, wake up and call out for joy. For as the water on the grass in the morning brings new life, the earth will bring back to life those who have been dead.
Punishment of Sinners
20 Come, my people, go into your rooms. Close your doors behind you. Hide for a little while until God’s anger is past. 21 For see, the Lord is about to come out from His place to punish the people of the earth for their sin. And the earth will let the blood be seen that has poured on her. She will no longer cover her dead.
Isaiah 26
Easy-to-Read Version
A Song of Praise to God
26 At that time people will sing this song in Judah:
We have a strong city with strong walls and defenses.
But God gives us our salvation.[a]
2 Open the gates for the good people to enter.
They are the God’s faithful followers.
3 God, you give true peace
to people who depend on you,
to those who trust in you.
4 So trust the Lord always,
because in the Lord Yah[b] you have a place of safety forever.
5 But he will destroy the proud city
and punish those who live there.
He will throw that high city down to the ground.
It will fall into the dust.
6 Then poor and humble people will walk on those ruins.
7 Honesty is the path good people follow.
They follow the path that is straight and true.
And God, you make that way smooth
and easy to follow.
8 But, Lord, we are waiting for your way of justice.
We want to honor you and your name.
9 At night my soul longs to be with you,
and the spirit in me wants to be with you at the dawn of every new day.
When your way of justice comes to the world,
people will learn the right way of living.
10 Evil people will not learn to do good,
even if you show them only kindness.
They will still do wrong, even if they live in a good world.
They never see the Lord’s greatness.
11 Lord, your arm is raised to punish them,
but they don’t see it.
Show them how strong your love[c] is for your people.
Then those who are evil will be ashamed.
Yes, your fire will destroy your enemies.
12 Lord, you have succeeded in doing everything we tried to do,
so give us peace.
God Will Give New Life to His People
13 Lord, you are our God,
but in the past, we followed other lords.
We belonged to other masters,[d]
but now we want people to remember only one name—yours.
14 Those dead lords will not come to life.
Those ghosts will not rise from death.
You decided to destroy them,
and you destroyed everything that makes us think about them.
15 Lord, you have helped the nation you love.
You made our nation grow
and brought honor to yourself.[e]
16 Lord, people remember you
when they are in trouble.
So because of your punishment,
we called out to you.
17 Lord, because of you we were in pain,
like a woman giving birth,
who struggles and cries out when it is time.
18 But we struggled in pain for nothing.
We gave birth only to wind.
We did nothing to save the land.
No one was born to live in the world.
19 But the Lord says,
“Your people have died,
but they will live again.
The bodies of my people
will rise from death.
Dead people in the ground,
stand and be happy!
The dew covering you is like
the dew sparkling in the light of a new day.
It shows that a new time is coming,
when the earth will give birth to the dead who are in it.”
Judgment: Reward or Punishment
20 My people, go into your rooms
and lock your doors.
Hide in there for a short time
until God’s anger is finished.
21 Look! The Lord is coming out from his place[f]
to judge the people of the world for the bad things they have done.
The earth will reveal the blood that has been spilled on it.
It will no longer hide the proof of those murders.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 26:1 Or “We have a strong city that provides us with salvation. It has strong walls and defenses.”
- Isaiah 26:4 Lord Yah Or “Yah Yahweh,” a Hebrew name for God.
- Isaiah 26:11 strong … love The Hebrew word means strong feelings like love, hate, anger, zeal, or jealousy.
- Isaiah 26:13 we followed … masters This is a wordplay. It could also be translated, “Husbands other than you married us.” One word sounds like “Baal,” the other like a title for God.
- Isaiah 26:15 Or “You gathered together the nation you love, the nation you drove into faraway lands.”
- Isaiah 26:21 his place Probably the Temple in Jerusalem.
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Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International