Isaiah 26:2-21

2 Open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in.

3 Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace— in peace because they trust in you.

4 Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock.

5 For he has brought low the inhabitants of the height; the lofty city he lays low. He lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust.

6 The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.

7 The way of the righteous is level; O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous.

8 In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and your renown are the soul's desire.

9 My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

10 If favor is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness they deal perversely and do not see the majesty of the Lord.

11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.

12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.

13 O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but we acknowledge your name alone.

14 The dead do not live; shades do not rise— because you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them.

15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

16 O Lord, in distress they sought you, they poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.

17 Like a woman with child, who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near her time, so were we because of you, O Lord;

18 we were with child, we writhed, but we gave birth only to wind. We have won no victories on earth, and no one is born to inhabit the world.

19 Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give birth to those long dead.

20 Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past.

21 For the Lord comes out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no longer cover its slain.

Isaiah 26:2-21 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 26

This chapter contains a song of praise for the safety and prosperity of the church, and the destruction of its enemies. The church is represented as a strong city, whose walls and bulwarks are salvation, Isa 26:1 it is said to have gates which are to be opened to a righteous nation, Isa 26:2 its inhabitants, being such who trust in the Lord, are promised perfect peace, Isa 26:3 hence the saints are exhorted to trust in him, Isa 26:4 then follows an account of another city, described as lofty, and its inhabitants as dwelling on high, who are brought down, and trampled on, by the feet of the poor and needy, Isa 26:5,6 when the prophet returns to the righteous, and asserts their way to be uprightness, because their path is weighed or levelled by God the most upright, Isa 26:7 and in the name of the church declares that they had waited for the Lord in the way of his judgments; and that the desire of their souls was to his name, and the remembrance of it; and that they continued, and would continue, to desire him, and seek after him, seeing righteousness was to be learned by his judgments, Isa 26:8,9 and though the wicked would not be brought to repentance and reformation by the goodness of God, nor take notice of his hand, yet they should see and be ashamed, and destroyed at last, Isa 26:10,11 but notwithstanding these judgments of God in the earth, the church professes her faith in the Lord, that he would give her peace and prosperity, from the consideration of what he had wrought for her, and in her, Isa 26:12 and rejects all other lords but him, Isa 26:13 who were dead, and should not live again, but were visited and destroyed, and their memory made to perish, Isa 26:14 but the righteous nation should be increased, though they should meet with trouble, which would cause them to go to the throne of grace, and there pour out their complaints, express their pain and distresses, and the disappointments they had met with, Isa 26:15-18 to which an answer is returned, promising a glorious resurrection, Isa 26:19 and calling upon the people of God to retire to their chambers for protection in the mean while, until the punishment to be inflicted on the inhabitants of the earth for their sins was over, Isa 26:20,21.

Footnotes

• [a]. Heb [in Yah, the Lord]
• [b]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
• [c]. Cn Compare Syr Tg: Heb [my corpse]
• [d]. Heb [to the shades]