Isaiah 26
26
Stretch the Borders of Life
1-6At that time, this song
will be sung in the country of Judah:
We have a strong city, Salvation City,
built and fortified with salvation.
Throw wide the gates
so good and true people can enter.
People with their minds set on you,
you keep completely whole,
Steady on their feet,
because they keep at it and don’t quit.
Depend on God and keep at it
because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.
Those who lived high and mighty
he knocked off their high horse.
He used the city built on the hill
as fill for the marshes.
All the exploited and outcast peoples
build their lives on the reclaimed land.
7-10The path of right-living people is level.
The Leveler evens the road for the right-living.
We’re in no hurry, God. We’re content to linger
in the path sign-posted with your decisions.
Who you are and what you’ve done
are all we’ll ever want.
Through the night my soul longs for you.
Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you.
When your decisions are on public display,
everyone learns how to live right.
If the wicked are shown grace,
they don’t seem to get it.
In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living,
blind to the splendor of God.
11-15You hold your hand up high, God,
but they don’t see it.
Open their eyes to what you do,
to see your zealous love for your people.
Shame them. Light a fire under them.
Get the attention of these enemies of yours.
God, order a peaceful and whole life for us
because everything we’ve done, you’ve done for us.
O God, our God, we’ve had other masters rule us,
but you’re the only Master we’ve ever known.
The dead don’t talk,
ghosts don’t walk,
Because you’ve said, “Enough—that’s all for you,”
and wiped them off the books.
But the living you make larger than life.
The more life you give, the more glory you display,
and stretch the borders to accommodate more living!
16-18O God, they begged you for help when they were in trouble,
when your discipline was so heavy
they could barely whisper a prayer.
Like a woman having a baby,
writhing in distress, screaming her pain
as the baby is being born,
That’s how we were because of you, O God.
We were pregnant full-term.
We writhed in labor but bore no baby.
We gave birth to wind.
Nothing came of our labor.
We produced nothing living.
We couldn’t save the world.
19But friends, your dead will live,
your corpses will get to their feet.
All you dead and buried,
wake up! Sing!
Your dew is morning dew
catching the first rays of sun,
The earth bursting with life,
giving birth to the dead.
20-21Come, my people, go home
and shut yourselves in.
Go into seclusion for a while
until the punishing wrath is past,
Because God is sure to come from his place
to punish the wrong of the people on earth.
Earth itself will point out the bloodstains;
it will show where the murdered have been hidden away.
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Isaiah 26: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Isaiah 26
26
Judah’s Song of Praise
1On that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
“We have a strong city;#Literally “a city of strength for us”
he sets up victory like walls and ramparts!#Hebrew “rampart”
2Open the gates so that#Or “and” the righteous nation who keeps faithfulness may enter!
3You will protect a firm inclination in peace,
in peace because he trusts in you.
4Trust in Yahweh forever,
for in Yah, Yahweh you have an everlasting rock.
5For he has thrown down the inhabitants of the height,
he lays low the lofty city.
He lays it low to the ground;
he throws her to the dust.
6The foot tramples it,
the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”
Yahweh’s People Vindicated
7The way of the righteous is a straight path;
you clear the level path of the righteous.#Literally “the level path of the righteous you make level”; the meaning of this phrase is uncertain
8Surely we wait for you in the path of your judgments, Yahweh,
for your name and renown are the desire of the soul.
9I desire you with all my soul in the night;
also I seek you with my spirit within me,
for when your judgments are upon#Literally “to” the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10Though the wicked person is shown compassion, he does not learn righteousness;
he acts unjustly in the land of uprightness,
and he does not see the majesty of Yahweh.
11Yahweh, though your hand reaches high, they do not see it.
Let them see, and let them be ashamed of the zeal of people.
Indeed, let the fire of your enemies consume them.
12Yahweh, you will establish peace for us,
for you have done even all of our works for us.
13Yahweh, our God, lords besides you ruled over us,
but we praise your name alone.#Literally “alone in you we praise name you”
14The dead do not live;
dead spirits do not rise
because you have punished and destroyed them,
and you have destroyed all memory of them.
15You have added to the nation, Yahweh.
You have added to the nation; you are honored.
You have extended all the ends of the land.
16Yahweh, in distress they have visited you;
they poured out an incantation;#Literally “whispering”
your discipline was on them.
17Like a pregnant woman on the point of giving birth, she writhes;
she cries in her labor pains.
So we were because of your presence, Yahweh.
18We became pregnant, we writhed;
we gave birth to wind.
We cannot bring about deliverance on the earth,
and no inhabitants of the world are born.
19Your dead shall live; their corpses#Literally “my corpse;” some manuscripts propose an emendation to the suffix to change it to third person masculine plural (“their corpses”), which makes better sense shall rise.
Wake up and sing for joy, dwellers of the dust,
for your dew is celestial dew,#Literally “dew of light”
and the earth will give birth to dead spirits.#Or “you make the land of Rephaim fall”
20Go, my people, enter into your chambers
and shut your doors#The reading tradition (Qere) is singular behind you;
hide for a very little#Literally “a little a little” while,
until the wrath has passed over.
21For look! Yahweh is about to come out from his place
to punish the iniquity of the inhabitants#Hebrew “inhabitant” of the earth against him,
and the earth will disclose her blood
and will no longer cover her slain.
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