Isaías 26

The song of the strong city

¹On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah: \q Ours is a mighty city; \q he raises salvation around it for wall and rampart. ²Throw the gates wide, \q so a righteous nation may march in, one that remains faithful. ³The mind that is held steady you guard in peace, unbroken peace, \q for it relies on you.^{a 4}Put your trust in the LORD for all time, \q for Yah, the LORD, is a rock that stands through every age. ⁵For he has humbled those who lived on the heights, \q the city perched up high; \q he brings it down, down to the ground, \q and lays it level with the dust. ⁶It is trodden underfoot: \q the afflicted walk over it, and the weak tread its ruins. ⁷For those who are righteous the road runs level; \q Upright One, you smooth the track they walk.^{b 8}Even on the path where your judgments lead, LORD, we have waited for you; \q our deepest longing is for your name, the name by which you are remembered.^{c 9}I long for you with all my being in the night, \q and my spirit within me searches eagerly for you. \q For whenever your judgments reach the earth, \q the people of the world come to learn righteousness. ¹⁰Show mercy to the wicked, and still they will not learn righteousness; \q even where all is upright they act crookedly, \q blind to the majesty of the LORD.

A prayer for God to act

¹¹LORD, your hand is lifted up, yet they take no notice. \q They will see your burning devotion to your people, and shame will cover them; \q the very fire that waits for your enemies will devour them.^d

¹²LORD, you will set peace in place for us; \q indeed, whatever we have accomplished was your doing for us. ¹³LORD our God, masters other than you have lorded it over us, \q but it is you alone, your name, that we call on. ¹⁴They are dead and will not live again; \q they are with the dead and will not rise. \q That is why you dealt with them, wiped them out, \q and erased every memory of them. ¹⁵You have made the nation grow, LORD, \q you have made the nation grow; you have shown your glory \q and pushed out every border of the land.^{e 16}LORD, when hardship came they sought you out; \q under your correction they poured out a hushed prayer.^{f 17}Like an expectant mother whose hour has come, \q who twists in pain and cries out in her labor, \q that is how we have been before you, LORD. ¹⁸We conceived and labored, but it was as if we bore only wind. \q We have won no deliverance for the earth, \q and no new inhabitants of the world have been born.^{g 19}Your dead will live; my dead bodies will rise. \q Wake up and shout with gladness, you who lie in the dust! For your dew is a dew of shining light, \q and the earth will bring the dead to birth.^hi

Hidden until the wrath passes

²⁰Come, my people, step inside your rooms and bar the doors behind you. \q Keep hidden for a short while, until the wrath has gone past. ²¹Look! The LORD is setting out from his place \q to call the people of the earth to account for their guilt. \q The earth will lay bare the blood poured out on it \q and no longer keep its slain covered.