Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Isaiah 26
A Song of Trust
On that day this song will be sung in Judah:
“We have a strong city!
He makes salvation its walls and rampart.
Open the gates,
so a righteous nation may enter,
a nation that keeps faith.
You keep in peace—peace—
the mind that rests on you,
because it trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for YAH, the LORD, is an everlasting rock.
He has brought down those who live on high;
the lofty city he lays low,
lays it low to the ground, brings it to the dust.
Feet trample it—
the feet of the oppressed, the steps of the poor.”
The path of the righteous is level.
Upright One, you make the righteous person’s road smooth.
Along the path of your judgments, LORD, we wait for you.
Your name, your remembrance, is our deepest desire.
With my whole being I desire you at night;
with the spirit within me I seek you.
When your judgments are on the earth,
the world’s inhabitants learn righteousness.
Show favor to the wicked, and they still do not learn righteousness.
In a land of uprightness they do wrong
and fail to see the LORD’s majesty.
LORD, your hand is raised, but they do not see.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be ashamed;
let the fire for your enemies consume them.
LORD, you establish peace for us;
everything we have accomplished, you have done for us.
LORD our God, other lords have ruled us;
but through you alone we proclaim your name.
They are dead; they will not live.
They are shades; they will not rise.
You visited them and destroyed them,
wiping away every memory of them.
You have enlarged the nation, LORD,
you have enlarged the nation; you are glorified.
You have extended all the land’s boundaries.
LORD, in distress they sought you;
they poured out a whispered prayer
when your discipline was upon them.
As a pregnant woman near delivery
writhes and cries in labor,
so we were before you, LORD.
We conceived, we writhed,
but gave birth only to wind.
We brought no salvation to the earth;
no inhabitants of the world were born.
Your dead will live; my dead body will rise.
Wake and sing, you who dwell in dust!
Your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will bring forth the shades.
Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut your door behind you.
Hide for a little while,
until the wrath passes.
Look! The LORD comes out from his place
to call earth’s inhabitants to account for their guilt.
The earth will uncover its bloodshed
and no longer conceal its slain.