CHAPTER 26

1 In that day shall a song be sung in the land of Judah;
We have a city of strength;
He hath made salvation to be walls and a rampart.

2 Open ye the gates,
And the righteous nation shall enter,
Which keepeth the truth.

3 The thought is fixed;
Thou wilt keep peace, peace;
For they have trusted in thee.

4 Hope ye in Jehovah for ever;
For in Jah Jehovah is the strength of ages.

5 For he will bow down the inhabitants of loftiness;
He will lay low the elevated city;
He will lay it low to the ground;
He will bring it to the dust.

6 The foot shall tread it down;
The feet of the poor,
The steps of the needy.

7 Straightnesses are the path of the righteous man;
The straight way of the righteous man thou wilt weigh. ¹

8 Even in the way of thy judgments, O Jehovah,
We have waited for thee;
To thy name,
And to the remembrance of thee,
Is the desire of the soul.

9 My soul hath desired thee in the night;
Yea, with my spirit within me I will seek thee in the morning; ²
For so soon as thy judgments shall be in the earth,
The inhabitants of the earth shall learn righteousness.

10 The wicked man will obtain favour,
And will not learn righteousness;
In the land of upright actions he will deal unjustly,
And will not behold the majesty of Jehovah.

11 Jehovah, though thy hand is lifted up,
They will not see;
They shall see, and be ashamed,
Through their envy of the people;
Yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

12 O Jehovah, thou wilt ordain peace for us;
For thou also hast wrought all our works for us.

13 O Jehovah our God,
Lords besides thee have had dominion over us;
By thee only will we call thy name to remembrance.

14 The dead shall not live;
The slain shall not rise again;
Therefore thou hast visited and driven them away,
And hast destroyed all remembrance of them.

15 Thou hast added to the nation, O Jehovah!
Thou hast added to the nation;
Thou art glorified;
Thou hast enlarged all the boundaries of the earth.

16 O Jehovah, in trouble have they visited thee;
They poured out a prayer, when thy chastening was upon them.

17 As a woman with child, who draweth near to her delivery,
Is in pain, and crieth out in her pains;
So have we been before thy face, O Jehovah.

18 We have been in labour,
We have had pain,
As if we had brought forth wind;
Salvation hath not been wrought for the earth,
And the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

19 Thy dead men shall live;
My dead body, they shall arise;
Awake and sing, ye inhabitants of the dust;
For thy dew is the dew of herbs;
And the earth shall cast out the dead. ³

20 Come, O my people;
Enter thou into thy chambers;
Shut the door behind thee;
Hide thyself a little for a moment,
Till the indignation pass over.

21 For, behold, Jehovah cometh out of his place,
To visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him;
And the earth shall disclose her blood,
And shall no longer cover her slain.