Isaiah 26

1 On that day they will sing this song in the land of Judah: A strong city have we; he sets up walls and ramparts to protect us.
2 Open up the gates to let in a nation that is just, one that keeps faith.
3 A nation of firm purpose you keep in peace; in peace, for its trust in you.
4 Trust in the LORD forever! For the LORD is an eternal Rock.
5 He humbles those in high places, and the lofty city he brings down; He tumbles it to the ground, levels it with the dust.
6 It is trampled underfoot by the needy, by the footsteps of the poor.
7 The way of the just is smooth; the path of the just you make level.
8 Yes, for your way and your judgments, O LORD, we look to you; Your name and your title are the desire of our souls.
9 My soul yearns for you in the night, yes, my spirit within me keeps vigil for you; When your judgment dawns upon the earth, the world's inhabitants learn justice.
10 The wicked man, spared, does not learn justice; in an upright land he acts perversely, and sees not the majesty of the LORD.
11 O LORD, your hand is uplifted, but they behold it not; Let them be shamed when they see your zeal for your people: let the fire prepared for your enemies consume them.
12 O LORD, you mete out peace to us, for it is you who have accomplished all we have done.
13 O LORD, our God, other lords than you have ruled us; it is from you only that we can call upon your name.
14 Dead they are, they have no life, shades that cannot rise; For you have punished and destroyed them, and wiped out all memory of them.
15 You have increased the nation, O LORD, increased the nation to your own glory, and extended far all the borders of the land.
16 O LORD, oppressed by your punishment, we cried out in anguish under your chastising.
17 As a woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pains, so were we in your presence, O LORD.
18 We conceived and writhed in pain, giving birth to wind; Salvation we have not achieved for the earth, the inhabitants of the world cannot bring it forth.
19 But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise; awake and sing, you who lie in the dust. For your dew is a dew of light, and the land of shades gives birth.
20 Go, my people, enter your chambers, and close your doors behind you; Hide yourselves for a brief moment, until the wrath is past.
21 See, the LORD goes forth from his place, to punish the wickedness of the earth's inhabitants; The earth will reveal the blood upon her, and no longer conceal her slain.

Isaiah 27

1 On that day, The LORD will punish with his sword that is cruel, great, and strong, Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the coiled serpent; and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 On that day--The pleasant vineyard, sing about it!
3 I, the LORD, am its keeper, I water it every moment; Lest anyone harm it, night and day I guard it.
4 I am not angry, but if I were to find briers and thorns, In battle I should march against them; I should burn them all.
5 Or shall he cling to me for refuge? He must make peace with me; peace shall he make with me!
6 In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall sprout and blossom, covering all the world with fruit.
7 Is he to be smitten as his smiter was smitten? or slain as his slayer was slain?
8 Expunging and expelling, I should strive against them, carrying them off with my cruel wind in time of storm.
9 This, then, shall be the expiation of Jacob's guilt, this the whole fruit of the removal of his sin: He shall pulverize all the stones of the altars like pieces of chalk; no sacred poles or incense altars shall stand.
10 For the fortified city shall be desolate, an abandoned pasture, a forsaken wilderness, where calves shall browse and lie. Its boughs shall be destroyed,
11 its branches shall wither and be broken off, and women shall come to build a fire with them. This is not an understanding people; therefore their maker shall not spare them, nor shall he who formed them have mercy on them.
12 On that day, The LORD shall beat out the grain between the Euphrates and the Wadi of Egypt, and you shall be gleaned one by one, O sons of Israel.
13 On that day, A great trumpet shall blow, and the lost in the land of Assyria and the outcasts in the land of Egypt Shall come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 28

1 Woe to the majestic garland of the drunkard Ephraim, To the fading blooms of his glorious beauty, on the head of him who is stupefied with wine.
2 Behold, the LORD has a strong one and a mighty, who, like a downpour of hail, a destructive storm, Like a flood of water, great and overflowing, levels to the ground with violence;
3 With feet that will trample the majestic garland of the drunkard Ephraim.
4 The fading blooms of his glorious beauty on the head of the fertile valley Will be like an early fig before summer: when a man sees it, he picks and swallows it at once.
5 On that day the LORD of hosts will be a glorious crown And a brilliant diadem to the remnant of his people,
6 A spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, And strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 But these also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priest and prophet stagger from strong drink, overpowered by wine; Led astray by strong drink, staggering in their visions, tottering when giving judgment.
8 Yes, all the tables are covered with filthy vomit, with no place left clean.
9 To whom would he impart knowledge? To whom would he convey the message? To those just weaned from milk, those taken from the breast?
10 For he says, 'Command on command, command on command, rule on rule, rule on rule, here a little, there a little!'
11 Yes, with stammering lips and in a strange language he will speak to this people
12 to whom he said: This is the resting place, give rest to the weary; Here is repose--but they would not listen.
13 So for them the word of the LORD shall be: Command on command, command on command, Rule on rule, rule on rule, here a little, there a little! So that when they walk, they stumble backward, broken, ensnared, and captured.
14 Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, you arrogant, who rule this people in Jerusalem:
15 Because you say, We have made a covenant with death, and with the nether world we have made a pact; When the overwhelming scourge passes, it will not reach us; For we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have found a hiding place,--
16 Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD: See, I am laying a stone in Zion, a stone that has been tested, A precious cornerstone as a sure foundation; he who puts his faith in it shall not be shaken.
17 I will make of right a measuring line, of justice a level.--Hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters shall flood the hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death shall be canceled and your pact with the nether world shall not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes, you shall be trampled down by it.
19 Whenever it passes, it shall take you; morning after morning it shall pass, By day and by night; terror alone shall convey the message.
20 For the bed shall be too short to stretch out in, and the cover too narrow to wrap in.
21 For the LORD shall rise up as on Mount Perazim, bestir himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, To carry out his work, his singular work, to perform his deed, his strange deed.
22 Now, be arrogant no more lest your bonds be tightened, For I have heard from the Lord, the GOD of hosts, the destruction decreed for the whole earth.
23 Give ear and hear my voice, pay attention and listen to what I say:
24 Is the plowman forever plowing, always loosening and harrowing his land for planting?
25 When he has leveled the surface, does he not scatter gith and sow cumin, Put in wheat and barley, with spelt as its border?
26 He has learned this rule, instructed by his God.
27 Gith is not threshed with a sledge, nor does a cartwheel roll over cumin. But gith is beaten out with a staff, and cumin crushed for food with a rod.
28 No, he does not thresh it unendingly, nor does he crush it with his noisy cartwheels and horses.
29 This too comes from the LORD of hosts; wonderful is his counsel and great his wisdom.