Isaiah 26

Translator Notes

1. The phrase bayyom hahu ('on that day') marks this as an eschatological song — a hymn for the future day of the LORD's reign. The strong city ('ir oz) is Zion, whose walls are not stone but yeshu'ah ('salvation'). The word chel ('rampart, outer fortification') adds a second defensive layer. The city's security is entirely divine — God Himself is its defense system.
2. This is the counterpart to the 'city of chaos' (24:10) and the 'lofty city' brought low (v. 5). While human cities crumble, God's city stands because its walls are salvation itself.

Translator Notes

1. The command to open the gates (pitchu she'arim) invites entry to those who qualify: a goy tsaddiq ('righteous nation') that is shomer emunim ('keeping faith/faithfulness'). The word emunim ('faithfulnesses') is plural, suggesting consistent, habitual faithfulness rather than a single act. Entry to God's city is by character, not by birth or power.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. This verse is one of Isaiah's most beloved. The yetser ('mind, inclination, imagination') that is samukh ('stayed, supported, leaning upon') God is kept in shalom shalom — the doubled noun indicating completeness, totality, perfect wholeness. The reason is simple: ki vekha batuach ('for it trusts in You'). Trust is the mechanism; peace is the result.
2. The word yetser also appears in Genesis 6:5 ('every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil') — the same human faculty that can be bent toward evil is here stayed on God and produces peace.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The command to trust (bitchu) echoes verse 3's description of the trusting mind. The phrase adei-ad ('forever, to perpetuity') removes any time limit on the command. The divine name is doubled: be-Yah YHWH — the shortened form (Yah) and the full form (YHWH) together, as though one name cannot contain enough of God's identity.
2. Tsur olamim ('everlasting Rock' or 'Rock of Ages') is one of the great divine titles. Augustus Toplady's hymn 'Rock of Ages' draws on this verse. The Rock metaphor conveys permanence, immovability, and reliability — the opposite of the earth that staggers like a drunkard (24:20).

Translator Notes

1. The 'inhabitants of the height' (yoshevei marom) and the 'lofty city' (qiryah nisgavah) are the opposite of the strong city of verse 1. This exalted city trusted in its own elevation — but God brings it down. The verb yashpilenah ('He lays it low') is repeated for emphasis, and the descent is total: to the ground (ad-erets), to the dust (ad-afar). The repetition mirrors the progressive demolition of 25:12.

Translator Notes

1. The ultimate reversal: the lofty city, brought to dust, is trampled by the very people it once oppressed — the poor (ani) and the needy (dallim). Those who were trodden down now tread on the ruins of those who trod on them. The foot (regel) is singular, then pluralized (raglei, pa'amei) — the trampling spreads from one foot to many.

Translator Notes

1. The orach ('path') of the tsaddiq ('righteous one') is mesharim ('level, straight, upright'). God as the yashar ('Upright One') is the one who levels the path — tefalles ('You make level, You weigh, You smooth'). The righteous walk on a path that God has prepared and leveled. The word tefalles can also mean 'to weigh on scales,' suggesting God's justice ensures the path's integrity.

Translator Notes

1. The community speaks: even in the midst of God's judgments (mishpatekha), they wait (qivvinukha) — the same verb of patient hope from 25:9. The 'desire of the soul' (ta'avat nefesh) is directed toward God's name (shimkha) and memorial/renown (zikhrekha). They desire not rescue from judgment but God Himself — His name, His reputation, His presence.

Translator Notes

1. Night longing (ballaylah) and dawn seeking (ashacharekkah, from shachar, 'dawn') frame a cycle of desire: the soul reaches for God through darkness into morning light. The theological principle in the second half is clear: divine judgments (mishpatekha) are pedagogical — they teach (lamedu) the world's inhabitants righteousness (tsedeq). Judgment is not merely punitive but instructive.

Translator Notes

1. The counterpoint to verse 9: while judgments teach the world's inhabitants, the rasha ('wicked one') refuses the lesson. Even when shown grace (yuchan), he does not learn righteousness. Even in a 'land of uprightness' (erets nekhochot), he acts perversely (ye'avvel). The wicked one's blindness is willful — he 'does not see' (bal-yir'eh) the LORD's majesty (ge'ut YHWH). The problem is not insufficient evidence but refusal to perceive.

Translator Notes

1. God's hand is lifted (ramah yadekha) — a gesture of power and action — but the wicked 'do not see' (bal yechezayun). The prophet then demands that they be made to see: yechezu veyevoshu ('let them see and be ashamed'). The qin'at am ('zeal for the people') is God's jealous love for His own. The fire (esh) that consumes is reserved for God's enemies (tsarekha) — divine fire is discriminating, not random.

Translator Notes

1. A profound confession of divine sovereignty: tishpot shalom lanu ('You will ordain/establish peace for us') declares God as the source of peace. The second clause goes further: 'all our works/deeds You have done for us' (kol ma'aseinu pa'alta lanu). Human achievement is reattributed to God. This is not fatalism but grateful acknowledgment — whatever good has been accomplished, God was the worker behind the work.

Translator Notes

1. A confession of past unfaithfulness: adonim zulatekha ('lords other than You') have 'mastered us' (be'alunu — from the root ba'al, 'to master, to own,' also the name of the Canaanite deity). The double meaning is deliberate: other ba'als have been our ba'al. But now: levad-bekha nazkir shemekha ('by You alone we invoke Your name'). The people renounce all rival allegiances and cling to the LORD's name exclusively.

Translator Notes

1. This verse refers to the 'other lords' of verse 13 — the false gods and foreign masters. They are metim ('dead') and refa'im ('shades, departed spirits' — the inhabitants of Sheol). They shall not live, shall not rise. God has destroyed them and erased their memory (zeikher). This verse sets up the dramatic contrast with verse 19, where God's dead do live and do rise.
2. The refa'im ('shades') are the powerless dead of Sheol — the term is used both of the departed and of the pre-Israelite giant inhabitants of Canaan. Here the false lords are consigned to permanent death.

Translator Notes

1. The doubling of yasafta laggoy ('You have enlarged the nation') emphasizes divine blessing on Israel. God is nikbadta ('glorified') through this expansion. The phrase richaqta kol-qatsvei-arets ('You have extended all the ends of the land') may refer to the expansion of Israel's territory or, more likely, to the extension of God's influence to the earth's ends. Growth and glory belong to God.

Translator Notes

1. The people acknowledge that distress (batsar) drove them to seek God. The verb paqadukha ('they visited/sought You') echoes the visitation language used elsewhere for God visiting humanity — here humanity visits God in desperate prayer. The 'whispered prayer' (tsaqun lachash) suggests an intensity too deep for loud speech — a quiet, urgent pouring out before God. Musar ('discipline, chastening') is understood as formative, not merely punitive.

Translator Notes

1. The birth metaphor captures the community's anguish: they are like a woman in labor (harah taqriv laledet), writhing (tachil) and crying out (tiz'aq) in her contractions (chavaleiha). The comparison is direct: 'so were we before You' (ken hayinu mippanekha). The metaphor implies both agony and expectation — labor is painful but purposeful, pointing toward delivery.

Translator Notes

1. The labor metaphor from verse 17 reaches its devastating conclusion: after all the agony, the birth produced only ruach ('wind, breath') — nothing. The confession is total: 'we have not brought salvation to the earth' (yeshu'ot bal-na'aseh erets). Human effort, even agonized effort, cannot produce deliverance. The world's wicked inhabitants 'have not fallen' (bal-yippelu) despite Israel's striving. This verse of despair sets up the divine answer in verse 19.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. This is one of the Hebrew Bible's clearest resurrection texts. Three commands/declarations: (1) 'Your dead shall live' (yichyu metekha), (2) 'their bodies shall rise' (nevalati yequmun), (3) 'Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust' (haqitsu veranenu shokhevei afar). The address to 'dust-dwellers' recalls Genesis 3:19 — those who returned to dust are summoned back from it.
2. The phrase tal orot ('dew of lights') is found nowhere else. The dew that raises the dead is luminous — made of light itself. The earth 'gives birth to' (tappil) the refa'im — a deliberate contrast with verse 18, where the people gave birth to wind. God's creative power succeeds where human effort fails. The dead of verse 14 (the false lords) do not rise, but God's dead (metekha, 'Your dead') do. Resurrection is selective and covenantal.

Translator Notes

1. God speaks directly to His people with intimate address: lekh ammi ('go, my people'). The instructions are specific: enter your rooms (bo bachadarekha), shut your doors (segor delatekha), hide (chavi). The za'am ('indignation, wrath') will pass — it is only kim'at rega ('a brief moment'). The echo of Exodus 12:22-23 is unmistakable: on the night of the Passover, Israel stayed behind closed doors while the destroyer passed through Egypt.
2. The 'brief moment' (kim'at rega) relativizes the suffering: however terrible the indignation, it is temporary. God shelters His people through judgment, not from it — they experience the time of wrath but are protected within it.

Translator Notes

1. The reason for hiding: the LORD exits His dwelling (yotse mimmeqomo) to punish (lifqod avon). The image of God 'coming forth from His place' suggests that judgment requires His active intervention — He leaves His heavenly abode to act in the world. The earth 'disclosing its blood' (gilletah ha'arets et-dameiha) echoes Genesis 4:10-11, where Abel's blood cried from the ground. All the innocent blood the earth has absorbed will be revealed.
2. The final clause — 'and will no longer cover its slain' (velo-tekhasseh od al-harugeiha) — means that every murder, every injustice concealed in history will be exposed. The earth itself becomes a witness, unable to hide the evidence any longer. This anticipates Revelation 6:10, where the martyrs cry out for vindication.