1 In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks. 2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter: the one which keeps faith. 3 You will keep whoever's mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock. 5 For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city. He lays it low. He lays it low even to the ground. He brings it even to the dust. 6 The foot shall tread it down; Even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy." 7 The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the path of the righteous level. 8 Yes, in the way of your judgments, Yahweh, have we waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul. 9 With my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. 10 Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see Yahweh's majesty. 11 Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries. 12 Yahweh, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also worked all our works for us. 13 Yahweh our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make mention of your name. 14 The dead shall not live. The deceased shall not rise. Therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish. 15 You have increased the nation, O Yahweh. You have increased the nation! You are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of the land. 16 Yahweh, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them. 17 Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Yahweh. 18 We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. 19 Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead. 20 Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past. 21 For, behold, Yahweh comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.
For the general scope and design of this chapter, see the remarks at the commencement of Isaiah. 24 and Isaiah 25:1-12. It is a song of praise supposed to be sung by the Jews on their return to their own land, and in the re-establishment of the government of God with the ordinances of worship on Mount Zion. It was usual, as has been already remarked, to celebrate any great event with a song of praise, and the prophet supposes that the recovered Jews would thus be disposed to celebrate the goodness of Yahweh in again restoring them to their own land, and to the privileges of their own temple service. There are some indications that this was designed to be sung with a chorus, and with alternate responses, as many of the Psalm were. The ode opens with a view of Jerusalem as a strong city, in which they might find protection under the guardianship of God Isaiah 26:1. Then there is a response, or a call, that the gates of the strong city should be open to receive the returning nation Isaiah 26:2.
This is followed by a declaration of the safety of trusting in Yahweh, and a call on all to confide in him Isaiah 26:3-4. The reason of this is stated Isaiah 26:5-7, that Yahweh humbled the proud, and guarded the ways of the just. The confidence of the Jews in Yahweh is next described Isaiah 26:3, Isaiah 26:9; and this is followed by a declaration Isaiah 26:10-11 that the wicked would not recognize the hand of God; and by an assertion that all their deliverance had been performed by God Isaiah 26:12. This is succeeded by an acknowledgment that they had submitted to other lords than Yahweh; but that now they would submit to him alone Isaiah 26:13-14. The declaration succeeds that God had enlarged their nation Isaiah 26:15; and this is followed by a description of their calamities, and their abortive efforts to save themselves Isaiah 26:16-18. Many had died in their captivity, yet there is now the assurance that they should live again Isaiah 26:19; and a general call on the people of God to enter into their chambers, and hide themselves there until the indignation should be overpast Isaiah 26:20, with the assurance that Yahweh would come forth to punish the oppressors for their iniquity Isaiah 26:21. With this assurance the poem closes.
This chapter, like the foregoing, is a song of praise, in which thanksgivings for temporal and spiritual mercies are beautifully mingled, though the latter still predominate. Even the sublime and evangelical doctrine of the resurrection seems here to be hinted at, and made to typify the deliverance of the people of God from a state of the lowest misery; the captivity, the general dispersion, or both. This hymn too, like the preceding, is beautifully diversified by the frequent change of speakers. It opens with a chorus of the Church, celebrating the protection vouchsafed by God to his people; and the happiness of the righteous, whom he guards, contrasted with the misery of the wicked, whom he punishes, Isaiah 26:1-7. To this succeeds their own pious resolution of obeying, trusting, and delighting in God, Isaiah 26:8. Here the prophet breaks in, in his own person, eagerly catching the last words of the chorus, which were perfectly in unison with the feelings of his own soul, and which he beautifully repeats, as one musical instrument reverberates the sound of another on the same key with it. He makes likewise a suitable response to what had been said on the judgments of God, and observes their different effects on the good and the bad; improving the one, and hardening the other, Isaiah 26:9-11. After this, a chorus of Jews express their gratitude to God for past deliverances, make confession of their sins, and supplicate his power, which they had been long expecting, Isaiah 26:12-18. To this God makes a gracious reply, promising deliverance that should be as life from the dead, Isaiah 26:19. And the prophet, (apparently alluding to the command of Moses to the Israelites, when the destroying angel was to go through the land of Egypt), concludes with exhorting his people to patience and resignation, till God sends the deliverance he has promised, Isaiah 26:20, Isaiah 26:21.
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, Isaiah 26:1 it is said to have gates which are to be opened to a righteous nation, Isaiah 26:2 its inhabitants, being such who trust in the Lord, are promised perfect peace, Isaiah 26:3 hence the saints are exhorted to trust in him, Isaiah 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, Isaiah 26:5 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, Isaiah 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, Isaiah 26:8 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, Isaiah 26:10 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, Isaiah 26:12 and rejects all other lords but him, Isaiah 26:13 who were dead, and should not live again, but were visited and destroyed, and their memory made to perish, Isaiah 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, Isaiah 26:15 to which an answer is returned, promising a glorious resurrection, Isaiah 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, Isaiah 26:20.
(Isaiah 26:1-4) The Divine mercies encourage to confidence in God.
(Isaiah 26:5-11) His judgments.
(Isaiah 26:12-19) His people exhorted to wait upon Him.
(Isaiah 26:20, Isaiah 26:21) Deliverance promised.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.