National hopes

1In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

“We have a strong city;

he sets up salvation

as walls and bulwarks.

2Open the gates,

that the righteous nation which keeps faith

may enter in.

3Thou dost keep him in perfect peace,

whose mind is stayed on thee,

because he trusts in thee.

4Trust in the LORD for ever,

for the LORD GOD

is an everlasting rock.

5For he has brought low

the inhabitants of the height,

the lofty city.

He lays it low, lays it low to the ground,

casts it to the dust.

6The foot tramples it,

the feet of the poor,

the steps of the needy.”

7The way of the righteous is level;

thou26.7 Cn Compare Gk: Heb thou (that art) upright dost make smooth the path of the righteous.

8In the path of thy judgments,

O LORD, we wait for thee;

thy memorial name

is the desire of our soul.

9My soul yearns for thee in the night,

my spirit within me earnestly seeks thee.

For when thy judgments are in the earth,

the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

10If favour is shown to the wicked,

he does not learn righteousness;

in the land of uprightness he deals perversely

and does not see the majesty of the LORD.

11O LORD, thy hand is lifted up,

but they see it not.

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

Let the fire for thy adversaries consume them.

12O LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us,

thou hast wrought for us all our works.

13O LORD our God,

other lords besides thee have ruled over us,

but thy name alone we acknowledge.

14They are dead, they will not live;

they are shades, they will not arise;

to that end thou hast visited them with destruction

and wiped out all remembrance of them.

15But thou hast increased the nation, O LORD,

thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified;

thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land.

16O LORD, in distress they sought thee,

they poured out a prayer26.16 Heb uncertain

when thy chastening was upon them.

17Like a woman with child,

who writhes and cries out in her pangs,

when she is near her time,

so were we because of thee, O LORD;

18we were with child, we writhed,

we have as it were brought forth wind.

We have wrought no deliverance in the earth,

and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

19Thy dead shall live, their bodies26.19 Cn Compare Syr Tg: Heb my body shall rise.

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

For thy dew is a dew of light,

and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall.

20Come, my people, enter your chambers,

and shut your doors behind you;

hide yourselves for a little while

until the wrath is past.

21For behold, the LORD is coming forth out of his place

to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,

and the earth will disclose the blood shed upon her,

and will no more cover her slain.