Judah’s Song of Victory
1On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
he sets up victory
like walls and bulwarks.
2Open the gates,
so that the righteous nation that keeps faith
may enter in.
3Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace—
in peace because they trust in you.
4Trust in the Lord forever,
for in the Lord God
you have an everlasting rock.
5For he has brought low
the inhabitants of the height;
the lofty city he lays low.
He 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;
O Just One, you make smooth the path of the righteous.
8In the path of your judgments,
O Lord, we wait for you;
your name and your renown
are the soul’s desire.
9My soul yearns for you in the night,
my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.
For when your judgments are in the earth,
the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
10If favor is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
in the land of uprightness they deal perversely
and do not see the majesty of the Lord.
11O Lord, your hand is lifted up,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed.
Let the fire for your adversaries consume them.
12O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
for indeed, all that we have done, you have done for us.
13O Lord our God,
other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but we acknowledge your name alone.
14The dead do not live;
shades do not rise—
because you have punished and destroyed them,
and wiped out all memory of them.
15But you have increased the nation, O Lord,
you have increased the nation; you are glorified;
you have enlarged all the borders of the land.
16O Lord, in distress they sought you,
they poured out a prayer
when your chastening was on 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 you, O Lord;
18 we were with child, we writhed,
but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
and no one is born to inhabit the world.
19Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.
O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a radiant dew,
and the earth will give birth to those long dead.
20Come, my people, enter your chambers,
and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until the wrath is past.
21For the Lord comes out from his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
and will no longer cover its slain.
