Isaiah 26

Isaiah 26 belongs to the section comprising chapters 24–27, commonly called the "Isaiah Apocalypse." Continuing from Isaiah 25, which praises God for swallowing up death, it opens with a song to be sung "in that day" in the land of Judah.

Outline

• Verses 1–4 A song to be sung in that day in the land of Judah. The righteous nation enters a strong city for which the LORD has appointed salvation as walls and bulwarks (outer ramparts). Those who trust in the Lord are kept in peace, and the LORD is called the everlasting strength (literally, "rock of ages").
• Verses 5–6 Those who dwell on high and the lofty city are brought down and trodden underfoot by the poor and the needy.
• Verses 7–11 The people wait for the Lord, who makes smooth the path of the just, in the way of His judgments, and they long for Him even in the night. The wicked, though shown favor, do not learn righteousness, and fire devours the Lord's enemies.
• Verses 12–15 The people confess that other lords have ruled over them, but they trust in the Lord alone. Those lords are dead and will not rise again, and the Lord has enlarged the nation.
• Verses 16–18 In distress the people prayed and travailed like a woman in labor. Yet they lament that they brought forth, as it were, only wind and did not work any deliverance in the earth.
• Verse 19 The promise that the Lord's dead will live and that the earth will cast out its dead.
• Verses 20–21 A command to enter one's chambers, shut the doors, and hide until the indignation is past. The passage then declares that the LORD will come out of His place to punish the iniquity of the earth, and that the earth will disclose the blood shed upon it.

Key Verses

• Isaiah 26:3 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee" — The verse celebrates the peace of one who trusts the Lord without wavering and is widely memorized (Isaiah 26:3). (The Korean Bible renders "mind" with a word meaning the purpose one holds in the heart.)
• Isaiah 26:19 "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise" — The verse is regarded as one of the principal Old Testament texts speaking of the dead coming back to life.
• Isaiah 26:20 "Enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee" — The verse depicts God protecting His people in the time of judgment; its interpretation and application vary.

Figures and Places

• The LORD: The one to whom the song and prayer are addressed. He is called the salvation of the city and the everlasting rock.
• The land of Judah: The place where the song is sung. Neither the strong city nor the "lofty city" that falls is named.
• The book is traditionally received as the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah.

Points for Reflection

• Readings of verse 19 fall into two main groups. One interpretation takes it as a promise of the bodily resurrection of individuals. The other reads it as a figure for the restoration of a ruined nation, like the vision of dry bones in Ezekiel 37:11–14. The verse stands in contrast to verse 14, which says the "other lords" will not live again.
• Views differ on the date of chapters 24–27. The traditional view regards them as prophecy from Isaiah's own time, while some in critical scholarship hold that they were written later.
• Some dispensationalist interpreters connect verse 20 with a pre-tribulation rapture. Others see it as a promise of protection recalling how the Israelites shut the doors of their houses and escaped the plague at the Exodus.
• The Septuagint wording of verse 20 resembles "enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door" in Matthew 6:6. Many also hold that "a little while" in Hebrews 10:37 is borrowed from this verse.

In the Korean Church

Verse 3 is frequently used as a New Year's motto or memory verse. Verse 19 is also used as a sermon text for Easter and funeral services.