Isaiah 26

⁷ The way of the righteous is smooth;
O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level.
⁸ Indeed, while following the way of Your judgments, O Lord,
We have waited for You eagerly;
Your name, even Your memory, is the desire of our souls.
⁹ At night ^[d]my soul longs for You,
Indeed, ^[e]my spirit within me seeks You diligently;
For when the earth ^[f]experiences Your judgments
The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
¹⁰ Though the wicked is shown favor,
He does not learn righteousness;
He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness,
And does not perceive the majesty of the Lord.

¹¹ O Lord, Your hand is lifted up yet they do not see it.
^[g]They see Your zeal for the people and are put to shame;
Indeed, ^[h]fire will devour Your enemies.
¹² Lord, You will establish peace for us,
Since You have also performed for us all our works.
¹³ O Lord our God, other masters besides You have ruled us;
But through You alone we ^[i]confess Your name.
¹⁴ The dead will not live, the ^[j]departed spirits will not rise;
Therefore You have punished and destroyed them,
And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.
¹⁵ You have increased the nation, O Lord,
You have increased the nation, You are glorified;
You have extended all the borders of the land.
¹⁶ O Lord, they sought You in distress;
They ^[k]could only whisper a prayer,
Your chastening was upon them.
¹⁷ As 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 gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.
We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,
Nor were inhabitants of the world ^[l]born.
¹⁹ Your dead will live;
^[m]Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the ^[n]dawn,
And the earth will ^[o]give birth to the ^[p]departed spirits.

²⁰ Come, my people, enter into your rooms
And close your doors behind you;
Hide for a little ^[q]while
Until indignation ^[r]runs its course.
²¹ For behold, the Lord is about to come out from His place
To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
And the earth will reveal her bloodshed
And will no longer cover her slain.