Isaiah 26-27

International Standard Version

“We have a strong city;
    God crafts victory,
        its walls and ramparts.^[c]
2 Open your^[d] gates,
    so the righteous nation that safeguards its faith may enter.
³ You will keep perfectly peaceful^[e]
    the one whose mind remains focused on you,
        because he remains^[f] in you.

⁴ “Trust in the Lord forever,
    for in the Lord God^[g] you have an everlasting rock.
⁵ For he has made drunk^[h]
    the inhabitants of the height,
        the lofty city.
He lays it low^[i] to the ground
casting it down to the dust,
⁶ by the feet of the oppressed who trample it,^[j]
by the footsteps of the needy.^[k]

⁷ “The path of the righteous is level;
    O Upright One,^[l]
        you make safe^[m] the way of justice.^[n]
8 Yes, Lord, in the path of your judgments we wait;^[o]
    your name and your Law^[p] are the^[q] soul’s desire.
⁹ My soul yearns for you in the night;
    my spirit within me searches for you.
For when your judgments come upon the earth,
    the world’s inhabitants learn righteousness.
¹⁰ If favor is shown to the wicked,
    they don’t learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they act perversely
    and do not perceive the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹ “Lord, your hand is lifted up,
    but they do not see it.
And^[r] let them see your zeal for your^[s] people
    and be put to shame—
        yes, let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them!
¹² Lord, you will decide^[t] peace for us,
    for you have indeed accomplished
        all our achievements for us.
¹³ O Lord our God,
    other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but through you alone
    we acknowledge your name.
¹⁴ The dead won’t live,
    and^[u] the departed spirits won’t rise—
to that end, you punished and destroyed them,
    then locked away^[v] all memory of them.

¹⁵ “But you have enlarged the nation,^[w] Lord;
    you have enlarged the nation.^[x]
You have gained honor;
    you have extended all the borders of the land.

¹⁶ Lord, they^[y] came to you in distress;
    they poured out their secret^[z] prayer
        when your chastenings were^[aa] afflicting^[ab] them.
¹⁷ Just as a pregnant woman writhes
    and cries out during her labor
when she is about to give birth,
    so were we because of you, Lord.
¹⁸ We were pregnant, writhing in pain,
    but we gave birth only to wind.
We have not won your^[ac] victory on earth,
nor have the inhabitants of the world been born.”

² At that time,^[ah]
    “A fermenting^[ai] vineyard—
        sing about it!
³ I, the Lord, watch over it
    And I water it continuously.
I guard it night and day
    so no one can harm it.
⁴ I am not angry.
    If only the vineyard^[aj] could give me briers and thorns^[ak] to battle,
I would march against it,
    and^[al] I would burn it all up.
⁵ Or else let it lay claim to my protection;
    let it make peace with me,
        yes, let it make peace with me.”

⁶ In times to come, Jacob will take root,
    and^[am] Israel will blossom, sprout shoots,
        and fill the whole world with fruit.

⁷ Has the Lord^[an] struck them down,
    just as he struck down those who struck them?
Or have they been killed,
    just as their killers were killed?
⁸ Measure by measure,^[ao]
    in their exile you contended with them;
with his fierce blast he removed them,
    as on a day when the east wind blows.
⁹ By this, then, Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for,
    and this will be the full harvest
        that comes from the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the altar stones
    like pulverized chalkstones,
no Asherah^[ap] poles or incense altars will be left standing.
¹⁰ For the fortified city stands desolate,
    a settlement abandoned and forsaken like the desert;
calves graze there,
    and there they lie down
        and strip bare its branches.
¹¹ When its branches are dry,
    they are broken off,
and women come and kindle fires with them,
    since this is a people who show no consideration.
That is why the One who made them shows them no compassion;
    the One who created them shows them no mercy.