26:1  In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.

26:2  Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.

26:3  You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.

26:4  Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

26:5  He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.

26:6  Feet trample it down—
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.

26:7  The path of the righteous is level;
O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.

26:8  Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.

26:9  My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.

26:10  Though grace is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and regard not the majesty of the LORD.

26:11  O LORD, your hand is lifted high,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

26:12  LORD, you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

26:13  O LORD, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone do we honor.

26:14  They are now dead, they live no more;
those departed spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
you wiped out all memory of them.

26:15  You have enlarged the nation, O LORD;
you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the borders of the land.

26:16  LORD, they came to you in their distress;
when you disciplined them,
they could barely whisper a prayer.

26:17  As a woman with child and about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, O LORD.

26:18  We were with child, we writhed in pain,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth;
we have not given birth to people of the world.

26:19  But your dead will live;
their bodies will rise.
You who dwell in the dust,
wake up and shout for joy.
Your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.

26:20  Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until his wrath has passed by.

26:21  See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling
to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her;
she will conceal her slain no longer.