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Juda's song of thanksgiving
IN that day shall this canticle be sung the land of Juda. Sion the city of our strength a saviour, a wall and a bulwark shall be set therein. 2 Open ye the gates, and let the just nation, that keepeth the truth, enter in. 3 The old error is passed away: thou wilt keep peace: peace, because we have hoped in thee. 4 You have hoped in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord God mighty for ever. 5 For he shall bring down them that dwell on high, the high city he shall lay low. He shall bring it down even to the ground, he shall pull it down even to the dust. 6 The foot shall tread it down, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.
Confidence in God's justice
7 The way of the just is right, the path of the just is right to walk in. 8 And in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for thee: thy name, and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul. 9 My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me in the morning early I will watch to thee. When thou shalt do thy judgments on the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn justice. 10 Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not learn justice: in the land of the saints he hath done wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord. 11 Lord, let thy hand be exalted, and let them not see: let the envious people see, and be confounded: and let fire devour thy enemies. 12 Lord, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought all our works for us.
Thanksgiving for God's mercy
13 O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, only in thee let us remember thy name. 14 Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and best destroyed all their memory. 15 Thou hast been favourable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favourable to the nation: art thou glorified? thou hast removed all the ends of the earth far off. 16 Lord, they have sought after thee in distress, in the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them. 17 As a woman with child, when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs: so are we become in thy presence, O Lord. 18 We have conceived, and been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.
The just will be saved; the wicked doomed
19 Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again: awake, and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin. 20 Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee, hide thyself a little for a moment, until the indignation pass away. 21 For behold the Lord will come out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more. ____________________________________________________________
26:1-4 The divine Apostle recognized as a Jew not only one that is so outwardly, but also one that is so in his inward being: we know it clearly from Romans 2:28-29. Isaiah therefore teaches that the choir of godly people, seeing the destruction of their enemies, applaud God their benefactor in a hymn and he shows pious conduct to have invincibly. He also invites the heavenly gates to be opened to the people who have nourished themselves with justice, who have observed justice towards all men and the truth of divine precepts, who have acquired for themselves the peace of God to perfection and who have established themselves in their hope in Him. (Theodoret of Cyrus)
26:5-6 And therefore, in order the more to show His power, He set up the head of His Church in Rome itself, which was the head of the world, in sign of His complete victory, in order that from that city the faith might spread throughout the world; according to Is. 26:5-6: "The high city He shall lay low . . . the feet of the poor," that is, of Christ, "shall tread it down; the steps of the needy," that is, of the apostles Peter and Paul. (St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica 3.35.3.r7) This is also what the Holy Virgin said in her hymn: “He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly” (Lk 1:52). It is He also who has destroyed the arrogance of the cities which raged against the piety, the arrogance which made them contend with God, before subjecting them to the steps of the apostles and to those who have accepted their teaching. (Theodoret of Cyrus) |
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