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Judah’s Song of Victory

26

On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;

he sets up victory

like walls and bulwarks.

2

Open the gates,

so that the righteous nation that keeps faith

may enter in.

3

Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace—

in peace because they trust in you.

4

Trust in the L ord forever,

for in the L ord G od

you have an everlasting rock.

5

For he has brought low

the inhabitants of the height;

the lofty city he lays low.

He lays it low to the ground,

casts it to the dust.

6

The foot tramples it,

the feet of the poor,

the steps of the needy.

 

7

The way of the righteous is level;

O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous.

8

In the path of your judgments,

O L ord, we wait for you;

your name and your renown

are the soul’s desire.

9

My soul yearns for you in the night,

my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.

For when your judgments are in the earth,

the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

10

If favor is shown to the wicked,

they do not learn righteousness;

in the land of uprightness they deal perversely

and do not see the majesty of the L ord.

11

O L ord, your hand is lifted up,

but they do not see it.

Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.

Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.

12

O L ord, you will ordain peace for us,

for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.

13

O L ord our God,

other lords besides you have ruled over us,

but we acknowledge your name alone.

14

The dead do not live;

shades do not rise—

because you have punished and destroyed them,

and wiped out all memory of them.

15

But you have increased the nation, O L ord,

you have increased the nation; you are glorified;

you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

 

16

O L ord, in distress they sought you,

they poured out a prayer

when your chastening was on them.

17

Like a woman with child,

who writhes and cries out in her pangs

when she is near her time,

so were we because of you, O L ord;

18

we were with child, we writhed,

but we gave birth only to wind.

We have won no victories on earth,

and no one is born to inhabit the world.

19

Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.

O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!

For your dew is a radiant dew,

and the earth will give birth to those long dead.

 

20

Come, my people, enter your chambers,

and shut your doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while

until the wrath is past.

21

For the L ord comes out from his place

to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;

the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,

and will no longer cover its slain.

 


14. The dead shall not live. 173173    {Bogus footnote} The Prophet again speaks of the unhappy end of the wicked, whose prosperity often agitates and vexes us, as we read in the Psalms of David. (Psalm 37:1, 73:3, 17.) That our eyes may not be dazzled by the present appearances of things, he foretells that their end will be very miserable. Others interpret this passage as relating to believers, who appear to die without any hope of a resurrection; but unquestionably he speaks of the reprobate, and this will be still more evident from an opposite statement which he makes at the nineteenth verse. There is a contrast between the resurrection of good men and wicked men, 174174    {Bogus footnote} between whom there would be little difference, were it not evident that the latter are sentenced to eternal death, and that the former will receive a blessed and everlasting life: and not only does eternal death await the wicked, but all the sufferings which they endure in this world are the commencement of everlasting destruction; for they cannot be soothed by any consolation, and they feel that God is their enemy.

The slain shall not rise again. 175175    {Bogus footnote} The word which we render slain is rendered by others giants; 176176    {Bogus footnote} but as in many passages of Scripture רפאים 177177    {Bogus footnote} (rĕphāīm) denotes slain, so also in this passage it will be more appropriate, for otherwise there would be no contrast. (Psalm 88:11; Proverbs 2:18; 9:18; 21:16.)

Therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them. This is added for the sake of explanation; for it assigns the reason why the reprobate perish without hope, namely, because it is the purpose of God to destroy them. In the wrath of God they have nothing to look for but death and ruin.


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