Biblion Bible Commentary
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You Keep Him in Perfect Peace
Isaiah 26:1-11
1 In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks. · WEB
A city whose walls are salvation, and a mind kept steady because it is leaning on something.
In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city. God appoints salvation for walls and bulwarks" Isaiah 26:1.
The lofty city of the previous chapters has been brought down to the dust; this one is strong, and its fortifications are not masonry. Salvation is appointed for walls, which is to say installed in their place.
Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter: the one which keeps faith Isaiah 26:2.
The gate liturgy of the psalms Psalms 24:7, and the qualification named is faithfulness rather than achievement.
You will keep whoever's mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you Isaiah 26:3.
The Hebrew doubles the word for peace — shalom shalom — which is how the language makes a superlative. And the condition has two parts that are one thing: a mind that is steadfast, and the reason it is, which is that it is resting on something outside itself.
The word for mind is closer to the inclination or leaning of a person. What is described is not concentration but direction.
Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an everlasting Rock Isaiah 26:4.
For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city... The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy Isaiah 26:5–6.
The demolition is done by the people the city had been built on top of, and they do it by walking. It is not a revolution; it is the poor crossing ground that used to be a fortress.
The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the path of the righteous level Isaiah 26:7.
The road is made level by someone else, which is the book's consistent account of how anyone walks straight.
With my soul I have desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are on the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness Isaiah 26:9.
The night again as the time of seeking, and then a claim about how people are taught. Judgment is described as instruction — the world learns righteousness when consequences arrive, which is not how anyone would prefer to learn it.
Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see Yahweh's majesty Isaiah 26:10.
And the alternative is tested and fails. Kindness does not teach this particular pupil; put him in a country where everyone is honest and he will still cheat. The verse is the book's most sober sentence about what mercy can and cannot accomplish on its own.
Yahweh, your hand is lifted up, yet they don't see; but they will see your zeal for the people and be disappointed Isaiah 26:11.
The hand stretched out through the earlier chapters, still unnoticed.
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