Isaiah 26-29

New King James Version

“We have a strong city;
^(B)God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.
^2 (C)Open the gates,
That the righteous nation which ^[a]keeps the truth may enter in.
³ You will keep him in perfect ^(D)peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
⁴ Trust in the Lord forever,
^(E)For in Yah, the Lord, is ^[b]everlasting strength.
⁵ For He brings ^[c]down those who dwell on high,
^(F)The lofty city;
He lays it low,
He lays it low to the ground,
He brings it down to the dust.
⁶ The foot shall ^[d]tread it down—
The feet of the poor
And the steps of the needy.”

⁷ The way of the just is uprightness;
^(G)O Most Upright,
You ^[e]weigh the path of the just.
⁸ Yes, ^(H)in the way of Your judgments,
O Lord, we have ^(I)waited for You;
The desire of our soul is for Your name
And for the remembrance of You.
^9 (J)With my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;
For when Your judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

^10 (K)Let grace be shown to the wicked,
Yet he will not learn righteousness;
In ^(L)the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of the Lord.
¹¹ Lord, when Your hand is lifted up, ^(M)they will not see.
But they will see and be ashamed
For ^[f]their envy of people;
Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.

¹² Lord, You will establish peace for us,
For You have also done all our works ^[g]in us.
¹³ O Lord our God, ^(N)masters besides You
Have had dominion over us;
But by You only we make mention of Your name.
¹⁴ They are dead, they will not live;
They are deceased, they will not rise.
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And made all their memory to ^(O)perish.
¹⁵ You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have ^(P)increased the nation;
You are glorified;
You have expanded all the ^[h]borders of the land.

¹⁶ Lord, ^(Q)in trouble they have visited You,
They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them.
¹⁷ As ^(R)a woman with child
Is in pain and cries out in her ^[i]pangs,
When she draws near the time of her delivery,
So have we been in Your sight, O Lord.
¹⁸ We have been with child, we have been in pain;
We have, as it were, ^[j]brought forth wind;
We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth,
Nor have ^(S)the inhabitants of the world fallen.

^19 (T)Your dead shall live;
Together with ^[k]my dead body they shall arise.
^(U)Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust;
For your dew is like the dew of herbs,
And the earth shall cast out the dead.

⁶ Those who come He shall cause ^(AG)to take root in Jacob;
Israel shall blossom and bud,
And fill the face of the world with fruit.

^7 (AH)Has He struck ^[n]Israel as He struck those who struck him?
Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?
^8 (AI)In measure, by sending it away,
You contended with it.
^(AJ)He removes it by His rough wind
In the day of the east wind.
⁹ Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;
And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:
When he makes all the stones of the altar
Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,
^[o]Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.

¹⁰ Yet the fortified city will be ^(AK)desolate,
The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;
There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down
And consume its branches.
¹¹ When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;
The women come and set them on fire.
For ^(AL)it is a people of no understanding;
Therefore He who made them will ^(AM)not have mercy on them,
And ^(AN)He who formed them will show them no favor.

¹² And it shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord will thresh,
From the channel of ^[p]the River to the Brook of Egypt;
And you will be ^(AO)gathered one by one,
O you children of Israel.

^13 (AP)So it shall be in that day:
^(AQ)The great trumpet will be blown;
They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,
And they who are outcasts in the land of ^(AR)Egypt,
And shall ^(AS)worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

⁵ In that day the Lord of hosts will be
For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty
To the remnant of His people,
⁶ For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷ But they also ^(AU)have erred through wine,
And through intoxicating drink are out of the way;
^(AV)The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink,
They are swallowed up by wine,
They are out of the way through intoxicating drink;
They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
⁸ For all tables are full of vomit and filth;
No place is clean.

⁹ “Whom^(AW) will he teach knowledge?
And whom will he make to understand the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just drawn from the breasts?
^10 (AX)For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little.”

¹¹ For with ^(AY)stammering lips and another tongue
He will speak to this people,
¹² To whom He said, “This is the ^(AZ)rest with which
You may cause the weary to rest,”
And, “This is the refreshing”;
Yet they would not hear.
¹³ But the word of the Lord was to them,
“Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little,”
That they might go and fall backward, and be broken
And snared and caught.

¹⁴ Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
¹⁵ Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we are in agreement.
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
It will not come to us,
^(BA)For we have made lies our refuge,
And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”

“Behold, I lay in Zion ^(BB)a stone for a foundation,
A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;
Whoever believes will not act hastily.
¹⁷ Also I will make justice the measuring line,
And righteousness the plummet;
The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
And the waters will overflow the hiding place.
¹⁸ Your covenant with death will be annulled,
And your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
Then you will be trampled down by it.
¹⁹ As often as it goes out it will take you;
For morning by morning it will pass over,
And by day and by night;
It will be a terror just to understand the report.”

²⁰ For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
And the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.
²¹ For the Lord will rise up as at Mount ^(BC)Perazim,
He will be angry as in the Valley of ^(BD)Gibeon—
That He may do His work, ^(BE)His awesome work,
And bring to pass His act, His ^[s]unusual act.
²² Now therefore, do not be mockers,
Lest your bonds be made strong;
For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts,
^(BF)A ^[t]destruction determined even upon the whole earth.

²⁷ For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin;
But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick,
And the cummin with a rod.
²⁸ Bread flour must be ground;
Therefore he does not thresh it forever,
Break it with his cartwheel,
Or crush it with his horsemen.
²⁹ This also comes from the Lord of hosts,
^(BG)Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in ^[v]guidance.

⁵ “Moreover the multitude of your ^(BK)foes
Shall be like fine dust,
And the multitude of the terrible ones
Like ^(BL)chaff that passes away;
Yes, it shall be ^(BM)in an instant, suddenly.
^6 (BN)You will be punished by the Lord of hosts
With thunder and ^(BO)earthquake and great noise,
With storm and tempest
And the flame of devouring fire.
^7 (BP)The multitude of all the nations who fight against ^[x]Ariel,
Even all who fight against her and her fortress,
And distress her,
Shall be ^(BQ)as a dream of a night vision.
^8 (BR)It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,
And look—he eats;
But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;
Or as when a thirsty man dreams,
And look—he drinks;
But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,
And his soul still craves:
So the multitude of all the nations shall be,
Who fight against Mount Zion.”

^(BZ)“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me ^(CA)with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
^14 (CB)Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
^(CC)For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”

^15 (CD)Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord,
And their works are in the dark;
^(CE)They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”
¹⁶ Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the ^(CF)thing made say of him who made it,
“He did not make me”?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

“Jacob shall not now be ^(CP)ashamed,
Nor shall his face now grow pale;
²³ But when he sees his children,
^(CQ)The work of My hands, in his midst,
They will hallow My name,
And hallow the Holy One of Jacob,
And fear the God of Israel.
²⁴ These also ^(CR)who erred in spirit will come to understanding,
And those who complained will learn doctrine.”