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Isaiah 26-28
New King James Version
Isaiah 26-28
New King James Version
A Song of Salvation
26 In (A)that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“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.
Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment
20 Come, my people, (V)enter your chambers,
And shut your doors behind you;
Hide yourself, as it were, (W)for a little moment,
Until the indignation is past.
21 For behold, the Lord (X)comes out of His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
The earth will also disclose her [l]blood,
And will no more cover her slain.
Israel Will Be Restored
27 In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
(Y)Leviathan that twisted serpent;
And He will slay (Z)the reptile that is in the sea.
The Restoration of Israel
2 In that day (AA)sing to her,
(AB)“A vineyard of [m]red wine!
3 (AC)I, the Lord, keep it,
I water it every moment;
Lest any hurt it,
I keep it night and day.
4 Fury is not in Me.
Who would set (AD)briers and thorns
Against Me in battle?
I would go through them,
I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold (AE)of My strength,
That he may (AF)make peace with Me;
And he shall make peace with Me.”
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.
Woe to Ephraim and Jerusalem
28 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,
Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower
Which is at the head of the [q]verdant valleys,
To those who are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one,
(AT)Like a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
Like a flood of mighty waters overflowing,
Who will bring them down to the earth with His hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,
Will be trampled underfoot;
4 And the glorious beauty is a fading flower
Which is at the head of the [r]verdant valley,
Like the first fruit before the summer,
Which an observer sees;
He eats it up while it is still in his hand.
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.”
A Cornerstone in Zion
16 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
“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.
Listen to the Teaching of God
23 Give ear and hear my voice,
Listen and hear my speech.
24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow?
Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?
25 When he has leveled its surface,
Does he not sow the black cummin
And scatter the cummin,
Plant the wheat in rows,
The barley in the appointed place,
And the [u]spelt in its place?
26 For He instructs him in right judgment,
His God teaches him.
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.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 26:2 Or remains faithful
- Isaiah 26:4 Or Rock of Ages
- Isaiah 26:5 low
- Isaiah 26:6 trample
- Isaiah 26:7 Or make level
- Isaiah 26:11 Or Your zeal for the people
- Isaiah 26:12 Or for us
- Isaiah 26:15 Or ends
- Isaiah 26:17 sharp pains
- Isaiah 26:18 given birth to
- Isaiah 26:19 So with MT, Vg.; Syr., Tg. their dead bodies; LXX those in the tombs
- Isaiah 26:21 Or bloodshed
- Isaiah 27:2 So with MT (Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica), Bg., Vg.; MT (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia), some Heb. mss., LXX delight; Tg. choice vineyard
- Isaiah 27:7 Lit. him
- Isaiah 27:9 Heb. Asherim, Canaanite deities
- Isaiah 27:12 The Euphrates
- Isaiah 28:1 Lit. valleys of fatness
- Isaiah 28:4 Lit. valley of fatness
- Isaiah 28:21 Lit. foreign
- Isaiah 28:22 Lit. complete end
- Isaiah 28:25 rye
- Isaiah 28:29 sound wisdom
Isaiah 26-28
New International Version
Isaiah 26-28
New International Version
A Song of Praise
26 In that day(A) this song will be sung(B) in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;(C)
God makes salvation
its walls(D) and ramparts.(E)
2 Open the gates(F)
that the righteous(G) nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.
3 You will keep in perfect peace(H)
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust(I) in you.
4 Trust(J) in the Lord forever,(K)
for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock(L) eternal.
5 He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground(M)
and casts it down to the dust.(N)
6 Feet trample(O) it down—
the feet of the oppressed,(P)
the footsteps of the poor.(Q)
7 The path of the righteous is level;(R)
you, the Upright One,(S) make the way of the righteous smooth.(T)
8 Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws,[a](U)
we wait(V) for you;
your name(W) and renown
are the desire of our hearts.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night;(X)
in the morning my spirit longs(Y) for you.
When your judgments(Z) come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.(AA)
10 But when grace is shown to the wicked,(AB)
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil(AC)
and do not regard(AD) the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, your hand is lifted high,(AE)
but they do not see(AF) it.
Let them see your zeal(AG) for your people and be put to shame;(AH)
let the fire(AI) reserved for your enemies consume them.
12 Lord, you establish peace(AJ) for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done(AK) for us.
13 Lord our God, other lords(AL) besides you have ruled over us,
but your name(AM) alone do we honor.(AN)
14 They are now dead,(AO) they live no more;
their spirits(AP) do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;(AQ)
you wiped out all memory of them.(AR)
15 You have enlarged the nation, Lord;
you have enlarged the nation.(AS)
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the borders(AT) of the land.
16 Lord, they came to you in their distress;(AU)
when you disciplined(AV) them,
they could barely whisper(AW) a prayer.[b]
17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth(AX)
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, Lord.
18 We were with child, we writhed in labor,
but we gave birth(AY) to wind.
We have not brought salvation(AZ) to the earth,
and the people of the world have not come to life.(BA)
19 But your dead(BB) will live, Lord;
their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust(BC)
wake up and shout for joy—
your dew(BD) is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.(BE)
20 Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors(BF) behind you;
hide(BG) yourselves for a little while
until his wrath(BH) has passed by.(BI)
21 See, the Lord is coming(BJ) out of his dwelling(BK)
to punish(BL) the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood(BM) shed on it;
the earth will conceal its slain no longer.
Deliverance of Israel
27 In that day,(BN)
the Lord will punish with his sword(BO)—
his fierce, great and powerful sword—
Leviathan(BP) the gliding serpent,(BQ)
Leviathan the coiling serpent;
he will slay the monster(BR) of the sea.
2 In that day(BS)—
“Sing(BT) about a fruitful vineyard:(BU)
3 I, the Lord, watch over it;
I water(BV) it continually.
I guard(BW) it day and night
so that no one may harm(BX) it.
4 I am not angry.
If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!
I would march against them in battle;
I would set them all on fire.(BY)
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;(BZ)
let them make peace(CA) with me,
yes, let them make peace with me.”
6 In days to come Jacob will take root,(CB)
Israel will bud and blossom(CC)
and fill all the world with fruit.(CD)
7 Has the Lord struck her
as he struck(CE) down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
as those were killed who killed her?
8 By warfare[c] and exile(CF) you contend with her—
with his fierce blast he drives her out,
as on a day the east wind(CG) blows.
9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned(CH) for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:(CI)
When he makes all the altar stones(CJ)
to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles[d](CK) or incense altars(CL)
will be left standing.
10 The fortified city stands desolate,(CM)
an abandoned settlement, forsaken(CN) like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,(CO)
there they lie down;(CP)
they strip its branches bare.
11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off(CQ)
and women come and make fires(CR) with them.
For this is a people without understanding;(CS)
so their Maker has no compassion on them,
and their Creator(CT) shows them no favor.(CU)
12 In that day the Lord will thresh(CV) from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt,(CW) and you, Israel, will be gathered(CX) up one by one. 13 And in that day(CY) a great trumpet(CZ) will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled(DA) in Egypt(DB) will come and worship(DC) the Lord on the holy mountain(DD) in Jerusalem.
Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah
28 Woe(DE) to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s(DF) drunkards,
to the fading flower, his glorious beauty,
set on the head of a fertile valley(DG)—
to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!(DH)
2 See, the Lord has one who is powerful(DI) and strong.
Like a hailstorm(DJ) and a destructive wind,(DK)
like a driving rain and a flooding(DL) downpour,
he will throw it forcefully to the ground.
3 That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s(DM) drunkards,
will be trampled(DN) underfoot.
4 That fading flower, his glorious beauty,
set on the head of a fertile valley,(DO)
will be like figs(DP) ripe before harvest—
as soon as people see them and take them in hand,
they swallow them.
5 In that day(DQ) the Lord Almighty
will be a glorious(DR) crown,(DS)
a beautiful wreath
for the remnant(DT) of his people.
6 He will be a spirit of justice(DU)
to the one who sits in judgment,(DV)
a source of strength
to those who turn back the battle(DW) at the gate.
7 And these also stagger(DX) from wine(DY)
and reel(DZ) from beer:
Priests(EA) and prophets(EB) stagger from beer
and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
they stagger when seeing visions,(EC)
they stumble when rendering decisions.
8 All the tables are covered with vomit(ED)
and there is not a spot without filth.
9 “Who is it he is trying to teach?(EE)
To whom is he explaining his message?(EF)
To children weaned(EG) from their milk,(EH)
to those just taken from the breast?
10 For it is:
Do this, do that,
a rule for this, a rule for that[e];
a little here, a little there.(EI)”
11 Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues(EJ)
God will speak to this people,(EK)
12 to whom he said,
“This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;(EL)
and, “This is the place of repose”—
but they would not listen.
13 So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
Do this, do that,
a rule for this, a rule for that;
a little here, a little there(EM)—
so that as they go they will fall backward;
they will be injured(EN) and snared and captured.(EO)
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord,(EP) you scoffers(EQ)
who rule this people in Jerusalem.
15 You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death,(ER)
with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement.
When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by,(ES)
it cannot touch us,
for we have made a lie(ET) our refuge
and falsehood[f] our hiding place.(EU)”
16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,(EV) a tested stone,(EW)
a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;(EX)
the one who relies on it
will never be stricken with panic.(EY)
17 I will make justice(EZ) the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line;(FA)
hail(FB) will sweep away your refuge, the lie,
and water will overflow(FC) your hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death will be annulled;
your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand.(FD)
When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by,(FE)
you will be beaten down(FF) by it.
19 As often as it comes it will carry you away;(FG)
morning after morning,(FH) by day and by night,
it will sweep through.”
The understanding of this message
will bring sheer terror.(FI)
20 The bed is too short to stretch out on,
the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.(FJ)
21 The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim,(FK)
he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon(FL)—
to do his work,(FM) his strange work,
and perform his task, his alien task.
22 Now stop your mocking,(FN)
or your chains will become heavier;
the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me
of the destruction decreed(FO) against the whole land.(FP)
23 Listen(FQ) and hear my voice;
pay attention and hear what I say.
24 When a farmer plows for planting,(FR) does he plow continually?
Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?
25 When he has leveled the surface,
does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?(FS)
Does he not plant wheat in its place,[g]
barley(FT) in its plot,[h]
and spelt(FU) in its field?
26 His God instructs him
and teaches(FV) him the right way.
27 Caraway is not threshed(FW) with a sledge,(FX)
nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin;
caraway is beaten out with a rod,(FY)
and cumin with a stick.
28 Grain must be ground to make bread;
so one does not go on threshing it forever.
The wheels of a threshing cart(FZ) may be rolled over it,
but one does not use horses to grind grain.
29 All this also comes from the Lord Almighty,
whose plan is wonderful,(GA)
whose wisdom is magnificent.(GB)
Footnotes
- Isaiah 26:8 Or judgments
- Isaiah 26:16 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.
- Isaiah 27:8 See Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
- Isaiah 27:9 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah
- Isaiah 28:10 Hebrew / sav lasav sav lasav / kav lakav kav lakav (probably meaningless sounds mimicking the prophet’s words); also in verse 13
- Isaiah 28:15 Or false gods
- Isaiah 28:25 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
- Isaiah 28:25 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
New King James Version (NKJV) 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.