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
XXVI
1In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city,
Salvation will He appoint for walls and bulwarks.
2Open ye the gates, that a righteous nation
Which keepeth the truth may enter in.
3A well-established mind,
Wilt thou preserve in perfect peace;
For in thee it trusteth.
4Trust ye in Jehovah for ever;
For Jehovah is the everlasting God, a rock of ages.
5For he hath humbled those that dwell on high;
The lofty city, he hath brought her down:
He hath brought her down even to the ground;
He hath levelled her with the dust.
6The foot shall trample upon her;
The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the needy.
7The way of the righteous is perfectly straight;
Thou, most upright, levellest the path of the righteous.
8Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Jehovah, we have waited for thee;
To thy name, and the remembrance of thee, is the desire of our soul.
9With my soul have I desired thee in the night;
Yea, with my inmost spirit I have sought thee early:
For when thy judgments are in the earth,
The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10Though mercy be shewn to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness:
In the land of rectitude he will deal perversely,
And will not regard the majesty of Jehovah.
11Thy hand, O Jehovah, is lifted up, yet will they not see:
But they shall see thy zeal for the people, and shall be ashamed;
Yea, fire shall burn up thine adversaries.
12Thou, O Jehovah, wilt ordain peace for us.
For thou hast wrought even all our works for us.
13O Jehovah, our God!
Other lords, beside thee, have had dominion over us:
But through thee only will we henceforth make mention of thy name.
14They are dead, they shall not live;
They are deceased, they shall not rise:
Because thou hast visited, and destroyed them;
And hast abolished all the memorial of them.
15Thou hast added to the nation, O Jehovah;
Thou hast added to the nation; thou art glorified:
Thou hast extended far all the borders of the land.
16O Jehovah, in affliction have they looked up to thee:
They poured out humble supplication, when thy chastening was upon them.
17Like as a woman with child, when her delivery approacheth,
Is in pain, and crieth out in her travail;
So have we been in thy sight, O Jehovah.
18We have conceived, we have travailed,
When we gave birth, it was wind:
Therefore the earth hath not gained any relief,
Neither an increase made to the inhabitants of the world.
19Thy dead shall revive, and our dead bodies shall rise again:
Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust!
For the dew of plants is thy dew;
And the earth shall bring forth the dead.
20Come, my people! retire into thy secret apartments;
And shut thy doors after thee:
Hide thyself for a little moment,
Until the indignation be overpast.
21For behold, Jehovah is going forth from his place,
To punish for his iniquity the inhabitant of the earth;
And the earth shall disclose her blood,
And shall no longer cover her slain.
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Translated by Rev John Jones (Ioan Tegid).Published at Oxford in 1830, second edition 1842.