Isaiah 26 explained: A Song of Trust and Rising

The strong city (vv. 1-4)

The people picture a coming day when Judah sings about a city kept safe not by stone walls but by God's rescue, with its gates open to the people who keep faith. Those whose minds stay fixed on God are promised a deep, settled peace, because God is a rock that lasts forever.

The proud city falls (vv. 5-6)

The "lofty city" stands for a proud, oppressive power; the text does not name it, and guesses range from Babylon to a symbol of any such power. Its ruins end up under the feet of the poor it once crushed.

Waiting through the night (vv. 7-11)

The speakers long for God night and morning and wait for him to set things right, saying that kindness alone does not change the wicked. They close with a blunt prayer that God's enemies be shamed and consumed by fire.

Old masters are gone (vv. 12-15)

The "other lords" are probably foreign kings who ruled over the people, and perhaps their gods too. They are now dead and forgotten and will not rise, while God has made his own nation grow and its borders spread.

Labor pains and rising (vv. 16-19)

The people compare their suffering to labor that produced only wind, meaning all their effort brought no rescue. Then comes a striking promise that God's dead will rise from the dust under his life-giving dew; scholars debate whether this first meant the nation reviving or real bodily resurrection, and Christians read it in light of Jesus rising.

Hide until it passes (vv. 20-21)

God's people are told to shut themselves indoors for a short while until his anger passes by. God comes out to punish wrongdoing, and the earth will no longer hide the blood spilled on it or cover those who were killed.

Key verse: Isaiah 26:19

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the promise that the dead will rise first meant the nation of Israel reviving after disaster or a literal resurrection of bodies, and how far it points beyond Isaiah's own time.

Something to think about

When your own hard efforts seem to produce nothing, what, if anything, keeps you going?