Isaiah 26:12-19

12 LORD, You will establish ¹peace for us, Since You have also performed for us all our works.

13 O LORD our God, ²other masters besides You have ruled us; But through You alone we ³confess Your name.

14 ⁴The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have ⁵punished and destroyed them, And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.

15 ⁶You have increased the nation, O LORD, You have increased the nation, You are glorified; You have ⁷extended all the borders of the land.

16 O LORD, they sought You ⁸in distress; They could only whisper a prayer, Your chastening was upon them.

17 ⁹As the pregnant woman approaches the time to give birth, She writhes and cries out in her labor pains, Thus were we before * You, O LORD.

18 We were pregnant, we writhed in labor, We ¹⁰gave birth, as it seems, only to wind. We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth, Nor were ¹¹inhabitants of the world born.

19 Your ¹²dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, ¹³awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

Isaiah 26:12-19 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.

Cross References

• 1. Isaiah 26:3
• 2. Isaiah 2:8; Isaiah 10:11
• 3. Isaiah 63:7
• 4. Deuteronomy 4:28; Psalms 135:17; Isaiah 8:19; Habakkuk 2:19
• 5. Isaiah 10:3
• 6. Isaiah 9:3
• 7. Isaiah 33:17; Isaiah 54:2, 3
• 8. Isaiah 37:3; Hosea 5:15
• 9. Isaiah 13:8; Isaiah 21:3; John 16:21
• 10. Isaiah 33:11; Isaiah 59:4
• 11. Psalms 17:14
• 12. Isaiah 25:8; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Daniel 12:2; Hosea 13:14
• 13. Ephesians 5:14

Footnotes

• [a] Or "cause to be remembered"
• [b] Or "shades"
• [c] Lit "sound forth a whisper"
• [d] Lit "fallen"
• [e] So with some ancient versions; Heb "My"
• [f] Lit "lights"
• [g] Lit "cause to fall"
• [h] Or "shades"