World English Bible
- 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.
- Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter: the one which keeps faith.
- You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.
- Trust in the LORD forever; for in the LORD, the LORD, is an everlasting Rock.
- 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.
- The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy.”
- The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the path of the righteous level.
- Yes, in the way of your judgments, LORD, we have waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.
- With my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
- 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 the LORD’s majesty.
- LORD, 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.
- LORD, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also done all our work for us.
- LORD our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but we will only acknowledge your name.
- The dead shall not live. The departed spirits shall not rise. Therefore you have visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish.
- You have increased the nation, O LORD. You have increased the nation! You are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of the land.
- LORD, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.
- Just 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, LORD.
- 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.
- Your dead shall live. Their 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 out the departed spirits.
- Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
- For, behold, the LORD comes 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.
A city in Isaiah’s world lived by its walls. At Lachish, the remains of an Assyrian siege ramp still show how quickly those walls could fail. Isaiah’s song begins with a startling claim: “God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks” (Isaiah 26:1, World English Bible). The city is strong, but not because its people have finally made themselves impossible to hurt.
Its gates stand open to a people who keep faith. The “lofty city,” by contrast, is brought down until the poor can walk over its ruins. This is more than one power replacing another. God is overturning a world in which the vulnerable must always look up at those who rule them.
Inside God’s city is shalom shalom—the Hebrew phrase behind “perfect peace.” The doubled word suggests peace in its fullness. Yet the “steadfast” mind of verse 3 is not a mind that never shakes; the Hebrew describes a purpose that is supported. Faith is not a clenched jaw. It is the decision to rest our weight on the everlasting Rock when our own strength cannot hold us.
The song then becomes painfully honest. God’s people have suffered under “other lords.” They have strained for deliverance like a woman in labor, only to give birth “to wind” (verse 18). Few images speak more tenderly to exhausted believers: not every costly effort produces the good we prayed for. Isaiah does not mock their labor. He lets them confess its limits—and then announces what only God can do: “Your dead shall live” (verse 19). The hope here reaches beyond national recovery toward the resurrection made sure in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20–26).
Notice what happens next. The people are told to go into their rooms and shut their doors “for a little moment.” The open gates of verse 2 and the closed doors of verse 20 are not a contradiction. There is a time to welcome and a time to take shelter, a time to act and a time to admit that we cannot save the world by refusing to rest. The words recall the households sheltered during Passover (Exodus 12:22–23).
Finally, the earth gives up what it has hidden: the dead rise, and the blood of the slain is disclosed. God’s promised future does not ask victims to disappear into a cheerful story. Resurrection and justice belong together. The Lord who gives life also remembers the lives others tried to erase.
Where are you laboring as though everything depends on you? What truth have you hoped would stay buried? Bring both before the God who knows when to open a gate and when to close a door.
Suggested hymn: “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.”
Prayer: Everlasting Rock, support our unsteady hearts. Give us courage to act, humility to rest, and hope in your power to bring life and truth into the light. Amen.