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14 The dead shall not live.
    The departed spirits shall not rise.
Therefore you have visited and destroyed them,
    and caused all memory of them to perish.
15 You have increased the nation, O Yahweh.
    You have increased the nation!
You are glorified!
    You have enlarged all the borders of the land.

16 Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you.
    They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
17 Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery,
    is in pain and cries out in her pangs,
    so we have been before you, Yahweh.
18 We have been with child.
    We have been in pain.
We gave birth, it seems, only to wind.
    We have not worked any deliverance in the earth;
    neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

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14 (A)The dead will not live, the [a]departed spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have (B)punished and destroyed them,
And You have eliminated all remembrance of them.
15 (C)You have increased the nation, Lord,
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have (D)extended all the borders of the land.
16 Lord, they sought You (E)in distress;
They [b]could only whisper a prayer,
Your discipline was upon them.
17 (F)As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth,
She writhes and cries out in her labor pains;
This is how we were before You, Lord.
18 We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,
We (G)gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were (H)inhabitants of the world [c]born.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 26:14 Or shades
  2. Isaiah 26:16 Lit sound forth a whisper
  3. Isaiah 26:18 Lit fallen