Isaiah26chapter 26

Isaiah 26:1-3

We have a strong city: The strong city of verse one answers the lofty city brought low in verse five and the fallen cities of the burden just finished, and its gates open only to the righteous nation which keepeth the truth. Verse three gives the chapter its most quoted line, perfect peace for the mind stayed on thee, a peace grounded in trust rather than in circumstance. Henry reads the whole song as Judah's answer sung after deliverance, and Barnes notes the Hebrew behind perfect peace doubles the word for peace itself, shalom shalom.

Isaiah 26:4-6

everlasting strength: Everlasting strength in verse four carries a margin the older commentators do not let pass unremarked, the Hebrew tsur olamim, literally the Rock of ages, the same figure Toplady later borrowed for his hymn. Gill and Clarke both note the reading and press it as a title for God rather than a bare adjective. The lofty city brought down to the dust in verse five answers the strong city of verse one, judgment on pride set against safety for trust.

Isaiah 26:7-9

The way of the just: The way of the just is called uprightness, and the same root word describes God himself as most upright, the path weighed rather than merely walked. Verses eight and nine turn from description to desire, waiting for the Lord in the way of his judgments and seeking him early in the night, with the stated hope that when his judgments reach the earth its inhabitants will learn righteousness. Delitzsch reads the night seeking as devotional longing rather than crisis alone, and Henry ties the learning of righteousness to affliction's proper use.

Isaiah 26:10-11

Let favour be shewed to the wicked: Verse ten answers verse nine's hope with its limit, favour shown the wicked does not by itself teach him righteousness, and in a land of uprightness he will still deal unjustly rather than behold the Lord's majesty. Barnes reads this as the case against mere leniency, kindness without judgment leaves the heart unchanged. The lifted hand in verse eleven goes unseen until the moment it falls, when shame and fire overtake what pride refused to see coming.

Isaiah 26:12-15

ordain peace for us: Verse twelve credits the Lord with every work Judah can claim, thou also hast wrought all our works in us, grace behind even the nation's own labor. Other lords who once had dominion over Judah are named without shame, the idols of the years under foreign rule, and verse fourteen answers them flatly, they are dead, they shall not live, their memory made to perish by the Lord's own hand. Calvin reads verse fifteen's paired lines, the nation increased then removed to the earth's ends, as one sentence holding both growth and dispersion under the same governing hand.

Isaiah 26:16-18

poured out a prayer: In distress Judah prayed, and verse seventeen likens the labor to a woman's birth pangs, pain without concealment before the Lord. Verse eighteen admits the harvest failed, we have as it were brought forth wind, no deliverance wrought in the earth, the nations still standing. Delitzsch and Barnes both read this as confession rather than complaint, Judah owning that her own strength never once delivered the land.

Isaiah 26:19

Thy dead men shall live: Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise stands beside Daniel twelve verse two as one of the Old Testament's clearest resurrection texts, and the older commentators name two readings without settling between them, a figure for the nation's revival after exile, dead Judah rising as a people, and a literal bodily resurrection of the individual dead, the dew of herbs and the earth casting out the dead read as its picture. Barnes leans toward the national reading as the verse's first sense while allowing the literal hope beneath it, and Delitzsch presses the individual resurrection as what the imagery finally demands. Both readings are named because the verse's own wording carries each, corporate language, my dead body, sitting beside living dead men in the same breath.

Isaiah 26:20-21

enter thou into thy chambers: Enter into thy chambers and shut thy doors is the Passover instruction turned into a promise, shelter for a little moment until the indignation now described has passed over. Verse twenty one gives the reason, the Lord comes out of his place to punish the earth's iniquity, and the earth itself is told to disclose her blood and hide her slain no longer. Henry reads the chambers as any place of refuge under God's own hand, and Gill ties the disclosed blood to Cain's cry from the ground, guilt finally made to answer.