Isaiah 26:1-19 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Memories and Anticipations. The poem, which is a very elaborate composition, seems to have been written in confident expectation of deliverance, though the actual situation is still one of distress. Jerusalem has been made impregnable, let the righteous enter in. The unwavering mind is kept by God in unbroken peace (cf. mg.). He is worthy of trust, for He is an everlasting rock; He has laid low the exalted city, the afflicted Jews trample it under foot. The way of the just is made smooth. The manifestation of Yahweh's judgment has been eagerly awaited, for the world's inhabitants will learn righteousness when Yahweh's judgments are in the land. The unrighteous shall not find favour, for they have not learnt righteousness. Though Yahweh's hand is lifted, they fail to see it. See it they shall, and be confounded and destroyed. He alone has secured their peace. Other masters have ruled them, but they are dead, and will never return to exercise dominion; the nation is multiplied, the land enlarged. They had sought Yahweh in distress, they writhed in pain, but their agony was in vain, the land remained unpeopled. To fill the depleted land, those who died in loyalty to Yahweh shall be raised from the dead. God's dew shall quicken the dead bodies, the shades shall return to the upper world.

Isaiah 26:8. The name of Yahweh in the OT stands for His essential nature as self-revealed.

Isaiah 26:10. Perhaps we should read with Marti, Favour will not be shewed to the wicked, who has not learned righteousness.

Isaiah 26:13. other lords: not false gods (cf. Isaiah 26:14), but earthly lords, i.e. Israel's oppressors.

Isaiah 26:14. deceased: read mg.; cf. Isaiah 14:9.

Isaiah 26:18. fallen: RV means that the enemy has not been overthrown. But we should probably read been born (mg.), and take the meaning to be that Palestine remains thinly peopled.

Isaiah 26:19. An extremely important verse, the earliest mention in the OT of a resurrection. Here it is restricted to the righteous; martyrs may possibly be specially intended. The much later passage, Daniel 12:2 *, adds the resurrection of the apostates. thy dead: Yahweh's worshippers. dew of herbs: render probably dew of light (mg.), i.e. dew from the realm of light; though J. G. Frazer thinks that the evidence he has collected with reference to the customs of bathing in dew may perhaps favour dew of herbs.

Related Commentaries of Isaiah 26:1

Isaiah 26:1-19

1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the trutha may enter in.

3 Thou wilt keep him in perfectb peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlastingc strength:

5 For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

6 The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

7 The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.

8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.

9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

11 LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

12 LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.d

13 O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.

14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.

15 Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.

16 LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayere when thy chastening was upon them.

17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.

18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.