Chapter Twenty-Six
1–6. Glorification of the city of God. 7–12. Glorification of God’s ways, 13–19. which are directed toward the annihilation of death and the establishment of eternal life among people. 20–21. The closing words of the prophet.
Isa 26:1-6. Victorious thoughts, heard at first from afar (Isa 24:14 and following), and then finding their echo on Zion and among peoples coming to Zion (Isa 25 and following), have not yet ended. A new God-fearing community of believers begins to sing a new song in the land of Judea, in which the ways of the Most High are glorified. This community has a strong city, which is open only to the righteous; the cities of the wicked – all are destroyed.
Isaiah 26:1. In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: a strong city we have; salvation He has given us instead of walls and ramparts. Isaiah 2:11. “In that day” – see Isaiah 2:11. “In the land of Judah.” Although here, without doubt, the discourse is about the future Church of Christ, which must embrace all mankind and spread throughout all lands, yet the prophet, as a member of the Old Testament Jewish Church, cannot imagine to himself that the land of Judah would cease to be a place especially beloved by God and especially guarded by Him. “A strong city.” To the prophet, of course, Jerusalem first of all comes to mind here. “Instead of walls.” In the new city there will be no need for especially strong walls, for the Lord Himself will guard it from enemies.
Isaiah 26:2. Open the gates; let the righteous people enter, those who keep faith. Compare Isa 23:3-6. “Faith” – possibly more correctly: faithfulness (to the Lord).
Isaiah 26:3. The steadfast in mind You preserve in perfect peace, for he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:4. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an eternal rock: The prophet, addressing now God, now the chosen community of God, expresses confidence that God is the only hope for man. Instead of the expression “steadfast in mind,” Nägelsbach proposes to read: “as a firm establishment.” The thought of the prophet, according to this interpreter, is that in the future city there should be various institutions and objects serving to adorn the city and benefit its inhabitants, and so the most important institution will be peace, resting on a firm foundation or pedestal. The Lord Himself gives strength to this foundation. Therefore, the expression “he trusts in You” Nägelsbach translates thus: “on You it is founded (this peace).”
Isaiah 26:5. He has brought low those dwelling on high, the lofty city; He has brought it low, brought it low to the ground, cast it to the dust. Isaiah 26:6. The foot tramples it – the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy. Isaiah 25:2. “City” – see Isaiah 25:2. “Tramples it.” The prophet as an Old Testament man was not unacquainted with the joy at the thought of the future defeat of the wicked. 26 Isa 26:7-12. The chosen community of the saved righteous expresses its constant trust in God, Who assigns His punishments to people with a corrective purpose. Unfortunately, the wicked did not understand this meaning of punishments and therefore justly suffer destruction.
Isaiah 26:7. The way of the righteous is straight; You make the path of the righteous level. Isaiah 26:8. And on the path of Your judgments, O Lord, we have hoped in You; to Your name and to the remembrance of You our soul has longed. “The way of the righteous is straight,” that is, the righteous goes to the goal by a straight, easy, and direct path. “You make it level.” However, the Lord helps him in this. “On the path of Your judgments,” that is, in all works of God, in all terrible punishments that befell whole peoples and individual people, the righteous saw support for themselves in their hope for the final victory of good over evil. “To Your name and to the remembrance of You.” The righteous desired that the Lord manifest His power so greatly that men would be obliged to call Him by His true name (God Almighty and Savior) and that correct knowledge of Him would be spread throughout all the earth.
Isaiah 26:9. With my soul I have desired You in the night, and with my spirit within me I seek You in the early morning: for when Your judgments are done on the earth, those dwelling in the world learn righteousness. “With my soul... and with my spirit,” that is, with all my inner being. “I have desired.” The prophet begins to speak in the singular to show that this desire is characteristic above all of him personally. He had endured so many injustices from people, and to whom, if not to him, did it so often befall to wish for the speedy appearance of God as Judge of men! “Those dwelling in the world learn righteousness.” However, in this desire of the prophet there was nothing of the kind of ordinary human vengefulness. The prophet so ardently awaited God’s judgments because he hoped that once these judgments befell the earth, people would learn righteousness.
Isaiah 26:10. If the wicked is shown mercy, he will not learn righteousness – he will do evil in the land of the righteous and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. The prophet proves the truth of his views on God’s judgments from the negative side. If there is no judgment on wickedness, if the wicked is shown mercy, then he will not change for the better and will continue to do evil, even while dwelling among the righteous, paying no attention to those facts in which the greatness of the Lord is clearly revealed to the righteous.
Isaiah 26:11. O Lord! Your hand was lifted high, but they did not see it; they will see and be ashamed, those who hate Your people; fire will consume Your enemies. The prophet notices the approach of great events, but other people see nothing. To this last circumstance the prophet complains to the Lord. “Your hand,” says he to the Lord, “was raised for a blow, but they do not see it.” People, consequently, do not pay attention to the signs (Matt 24:37-39). Yet they will nevertheless have to acknowledge their mistake when those events occur which were foretold by special signs from God, and this will bring them to shame. The fire of God’s zeal – zeal for His people – will consume these people, who could have seen the danger but did not wish to see.
Isaiah 26:12. O Lord! You have granted us peace; for all our works You have accomplished for us. In contrast to the wicked, the God-fearing expect with longing the day of God’s judgment as the day of their deliverance (Luke 21:28), as the day on which the Lord will grant them complete peace or rest. “Our works You have accomplished for us.” God was, according to the prophet, the operative principle in the righteous of all their thoughts, words, and deeds (Rom 8 and following; Gal 2:20). Isa 26:13-19. The prophet portrays people who are under the power of some alien force and cannot praise God, for this requires dwelling in God, being tightly united with God. These are the dead, who, according to the common understanding, can never return to life, for God Himself has annihilated them. This kingdom of death expands more and more. Yet even in the dead the thirst for salvation has not entirely extinguished: they seek the Lord and send their prayers to Him. Yes, in the kingdom of the dead there are signs of efforts again to return to life – efforts as agonizing as the labor of a woman giving birth, but these efforts bear no results. Nevertheless, the hope of the dead is not in vain. At least, the dead of the Lord will again rise to life under the action of God’s miraculous power.
Isaiah 26:13. O Lord our God! Other lords besides You have ruled over us; but through You alone we praise Your name. In the present form of existence all people: both evil and good, are subject to the power of evil. They live under various sinful influences. Especially heavily affects them the power of death and disease. These are the other lords that the prophet has in mind (compare Rom 8 and following). Such is the meaning of the first half of the verse. In the second half the prophet points to the abnormality of the above-mentioned order of things. Every creature ought to glorify the name of its Creator (Ps 18, 19th, 103rd, and others), and for this it is necessary that it be under the authority and in service to its Lord and Creator, that it dwell in Him. But this is impossible while it is under the power of another lord, under the dominion of death (compare Ps 6:6). Thus, the prophet here introduces us to that realm of which he speaks in greater detail further on – the realm whose inhabitants serve not God but another lord, and cannot praise God’s name.
Isaiah 26:14. The dead will not live; the Rephaim will not rise, for You have visited and destroyed them, and erased all memory of them. Isaiah 26:15. You have increased the people, O Lord, You have increased the people – You have glorified Yourself, You have expanded all the borders of the land. “The dead will not live.” The prophet expresses the common belief of Old Testament people, that from the bonds of death there is no deliverance (Job 7 and following; Job 10:21; Job 16:22).
Isaiah 14:9. “The Rephaim will not rise.” Those aggressors became nothing, powerless shadows (Rephaim compare Isaiah 14:9; Prov 2:18; Prov 9:18; Job 26:5) cannot rise again to life – so said the ancient people! 27 “For You have visited... them.” That is, it is precisely for this purpose that You have visited them, etc. (the Hebrew word lachen has this meaning). The prophet wishes to say that it is precisely the function of death that those subjected to it no longer have the possibility to live again. For this reason God has erased all memory of them. “You... have increased the people.” The discourse continues about the same power of death. Because no one from the kingdom of death could return to life, the inhabitants of that kingdom (the people) multiply more and more in number. Sheol receives ever newer inhabitants, releasing none from before. This multiplication of the inhabitants of the kingdom of the dead is at the same time a glorification of God (You have glorified Yourself), for here God’s judgment over man is fulfilled: “dust you are – and to dust you shall return.” (Gen 3:19), the power of the Lord is demonstrated and the nothingness of man (compare Isa 5:14 and following).
Isaiah 26:16. O Lord! In affliction he sought You; he poured out a prayer when Your punishment came upon him. Isaiah 26:17. As a woman with child, when her time to give birth comes, writhes and cries out in her labor pains, so were we before You, O Lord. Isaiah 26:18. We conceived, we writhed – and we gave birth as it were to wind; we have not brought salvation to the earth, and the other inhabitants of the world have not been born. Yet even in the kingdom of the dead there remains the seeking of life and hope for resurrection – it does not fade away. Also the dead in their distressed state seek the Lord, the source of all life (he sought You, that is, that people of whom it is said in verse 15). “He poured out a prayer,” that is, unclearly something whispered, muttered, for a dead man cannot have a true voice (compare Isa 8:19). “As a woman with child.” This is the speech of the inhabitants of the underworld. They say here what was the subject of their quiet prayers to God. That is, they were tormented by the thought of the impossibility for them to return to life and complained to God about this. “We conceived, we writhed.” Here the prophet, it seems, has in mind Psalm 17, verses 5 and 6 (Ps 17:5-6). David in this psalm compares his sufferings to the torments of hades. He does not say that he himself was already dead and descended into Sheol, but declares that he was extremely close to death, that he was already ensnared in its nets. And in this need he turned with prayer to the Lord and received deliverance. The prophet sees in this deliverance, which David received from the torments of hades, the foundation for his assertion that redemption from hades is possible and that the inhabitants of it have not lost hope for liberation from the bonds of death. This hope stirs up in the inhabitant of the kingdom of death impulses which he compares to the agonizing throes of a woman in labor, which, however, for the dead remain fruitless, because they are based only on their own efforts, and what strength do the dead themselves have to carry out their desires? Yes, there is such a thing as false pregnancy, when a woman has the outward signs of pregnancy, but of course she produces nothing. Likewise, the dead, without close organic communion with the Lord, cannot rise to new life. “We have not brought salvation to the earth” – possibly more correctly translated as: “we have not brought happiness to the earth.” The earth, bereft of its inhabitants, taken from it by death, is depicted as also suffering, grieving for them, and she could be happy only if the dead returned again to life. “And the other inhabitants of the world have not been born” – possibly more correctly from the Hebrew: “there did not appear on earth (new) citizens of the world.” From the underworld no one has come back to the world again (the Hebrew verb naphal, translated in the Synodal version as “born,” can also mean “to be born”). 28
Isaiah 26:19. Your dead shall live, the dead bodies shall rise! Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust: for Your dew is the dew of herbs, and the earth shall bring forth the dead. “Your dead shall live, the dead bodies shall rise!” These words, at first glance, seem to contradict the opening words of verse 14, “The dead will not live,” but the prophet here speaks of those dead who belong to the Most High, who stand near Him, to whom He Himself is near, in whom He dwells. The prophet perhaps did not himself clearly understand the full importance of the revelation communicated to him, and only in the New Testament is it made clear who these dead are who belong to the Lord. These are those in whom Christ dwells and who therefore must rise just as He Himself rose (1 Cor 15 and chapter; 2 Cor 1:22; 2 Cor 5:5; John 6:54). It should be noted that the prophet expresses this thought not as a wish but as a certainty – otherwise there will be no opposition to verses 17 and 18. Condamin adds the pronoun “their” to the expression “dead bodies,” in accord with the Targum and Peshitta. “Awake and sing, you who lie in the dust!” Here the prophet addresses words of comfort to those inconsolable dead whose speech is given in verses 17 and 18. “For Your dew” – this is an address to the Lord. On the morning of resurrection, as is usual on mornings in the hot season in Palestine, dew will cover the earth. But this will be a new, miraculous, divine (Your) dew! All these individual tiny glistening dewdrops will be nothing other than the risen in glorified form, resurrected radiant bodies of men, which the earth, which once swallowed them, will give back. “The dew of lights” – possibly from the Hebrew more correctly: “the dew of lights” or “bright dew.” 29
Isaiah 26:20. Go, my people, enter your chambers and shut your doors behind you, hide yourself for a moment, until the wrath passes; Isaiah 26:21. For behold, the Lord comes forth from His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will uncover the blood shed upon her and will no longer hide her slain. The earth will not only give back the bodies of the righteous. It will also bring to light all the bloody crimes that are buried in its depths. This will coincide with the day of the Last Judgment. During that time the community of the risen must hide, so that afterward, after its conclusion, it can begin a new life. Here the prophet addresses those who have risen from the dead. So, at least, one can assert on the basis of the Apocalypse, in which a distinction is made between the first and second resurrection. After the first resurrection (of the righteous) there will be the liberation of Satan, who will attack the city of God, and then there will follow the universal resurrection (the second) and the dreadful last judgment (Rev 20). Into what chambers the righteous must hide at this time, what chambers – the prophet does not explain. 30 The wrath of which the prophet speaks is obviously the dreadful judgment that will fall upon Satan and all the wicked (Rev 20:9-15).
Isaiah 26:21. For behold, the Lord comes forth from His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will uncover the blood shed upon her and will no longer hide her slain. “The earth will uncover the blood shed upon her.” Here is a clear reference to the blood of Abel, which the earth once drank with its mouth (Gen 4:11). The Apocalypse, in accord with this prophecy, also says that the sea, death, and hades will in time give back their dead (Rev 20:13). In this verse is given the thought of the resurrection of sinners, who, of course, must rise to life in order to be judged at the Last Judgment for their crimes and wickedness. Note. The Orthodox Church in verse 19 sees a prophecy of the resurrection of the dead: “When the revelation of You, O Christ, came to us in mercy, Isaiah, seeing the light that does not set, cried out from the darkness of the morning: the dead shall rise and those in their graves shall stand, and all who are born of the earth shall rejoice.” Thus the Church sings in the canon on Great Saturday in the irmos of the 5th song. It should be added that verse 19, as also verse 9 of chapter 26 of Isaiah, is often used for composing the irmoses in the 5th song of canons. * * *
Isaiah 26:6. – “And their feet will tread them – the feet of the meek and humble.” Note of the editor. In the Slavonic translation from the LXX it is said: “But the dead shall not have life, neither shall doctors raise them: therefore You have brought upon them and destroyed them, and taken away all the male offspring of them.” Note of the editor. The Slavonic translation of verse 18 is possibly far deeper and more symbolic: “Because of fear of You, O Lord, we conceived in the womb and travailed, and bore the spirit of Your salvation, which we have wrought on the earth: we shall not fall, but all who dwell on the earth shall fall.” Here it is possible to see symbolic reference both to the immaculate conception and to the earthly birth of the Messiah, revealing “the spirit of salvation,” and to the redemption by the sacrifice of the Messiah of all living. Note of the editor. In the Slavonic translation the thought of resurrection is expressed more clearly and fully. Thus it is said that the dead shall rise – in general, not only the righteous – and those in their graves shall stand. Moreover, these dead are contrasted with those who will remain alive until the day of the Last Judgment (those on the earth). So also the Apostle Paul distinguishes between the risen and those who will be transformed without dying (1 Cor 15:51). In the Slavonic translation it is said about this – “enter into your temple, shut your doors... Until the wrath of the Lord passes” – a clear indication that from God’s wrath can be saved only he who ENTERS THE TEMPLE, that is, the believer. Note of the editor.