Isaiah

¹ will be sung in the country of Judah: We have a strong city, Salvation City, built and fortified with salvation.

² so good and true people can enter.

³ you keep completely whole, Steady on their feet, because they keep at it and don't quit.

⁴ because in the Lord God you have a sure thing.

⁵ he knocked off their high horse. He used the city built on the hill as fill for the marshes.

⁶ build their lives on the reclaimed land.

⁷ The Leveler evens the road for the right-living.

⁸ in the path sign-posted with your decisions. Who you are and what you've done are all we'll ever want.

⁹ Deep from within me my spirit reaches out to you. When your decisions are on public display, everyone learns how to live right.

¹⁰ they don't seem to get it. In the land of right living, they persist in wrong living, blind to the splendor of God.

¹¹ but they don't see it. Open their eyes to what you do, to see your zealous love for your people. Shame them. Light a fire under them. Get the attention of these enemies of yours.

¹² because everything we've done, you've done for us.

¹³ but you're the only Master we've ever known.

¹⁴ ghosts don't walk, Because you've said, "Enough—that's all for you," and wiped them off the books.

¹⁵ The more life you give, the more glory you display, and stretch the borders to accommodate more living!

¹⁶ when your discipline was so heavy they could barely whisper a prayer.

¹⁷ writhing in distress, screaming her pain as the baby is being born, That's how we were because of you, O God.

¹⁸ We writhed in labor but bore no baby. We gave birth to wind. Nothing came of our labor. We produced nothing living. We couldn't save the world.

¹⁹ your corpses will get to their feet. All you dead and buried, wake up! Sing! Your dew is morning dew catching the first rays of sun, The earth bursting with life, giving birth to the dead.

²⁰ and shut yourselves in. Go into seclusion for a while until the punishing wrath is past,

²¹ to punish the wrong of the people on earth. Earth itself will point out the bloodstains; it will show where the murdered have been hidden away.