---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Isaiah 26:1. We have a strong city — In opposition to the city of the enemy, which God hath destroyed, Isaiah 25:2. Isaiah 25:2. Salvation - for wal"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/isaiah/26"
---

Verse [Isaiah 26:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/1). ***We have a strong city*** — In opposition to the city of the enemy, which God hath destroyed, [Isaiah 25:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/25/2). [Isaiah 25:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/25/2).
***Salvation - for walls and bulwarks*** — חומת וחל *chomoth vachel, walls* *and redoubts*, or the *walls and the ditch*. חל chel properly signifies the *ditch* or *trench* without the wall; see *Kimchi*. The same rabbin says, This song refers to the time of salvation, i.e., the days of the Messiah.

Verse [Isaiah 26:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/2). ***The righteous nation*** — The converted Gentiles shall have the *gates opened* - a full entrance into all the glories and privileges of the Gospel; being fellow heirs with the converted Jews. The Jewish peculiarity is destroyed, for the middle wall of partition is broken down.
***The truth*** — The Gospel itself - as the fulfilment of all the ancient types, shadows, and ceremonies; and therefore termed *the* *truth*, in opposition to all those shadowy rites and ceremonies. "The law was given by Moses; *but* grace *and* TRUTH came by Jesus Christ;" [John 1:17](../../../kjv/john/1/17), and [John 1:17](../../../kjv/john/1/17).

Verse [Isaiah 26:3](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/3). ***In perfect peace*** — שלום שלום *shalom, shalom*, "peace, peace," i.e., peace upon peace - all kinds of *prosperity* - happiness in this world and in the world to come.
***Because he trusteth in thee*** - "Because they have trusted in thee"] So the *Chaldee*, בטחו betacho. The *Syriac* and *Vulgate* read בטחנו *batachnu*, "we have trusted." *Schroeder*, Gram. Heb. p. 360, explains the present reading בטוח *batuach*, impersonally, *confisum est*.

Verse [Isaiah 26:4](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/4). ***In the Lord JEHOVAH*** - "In JEHOVAH"] In JAH JEHOVAH, Heb.; but see *Houbigant*, and [Isaiah 12:2](../../../kjv/isaiah/12/2).
***Everlasting strength*** — צור עולמים *tsur olamim*, "the rock of ages;" or, according to Rab. *Maimon*, - the *eternal Fountain, Source*, or *Spring*. Does not this refer to the lasting streams from the rock in the desert? And that rock was Christ. *ge han hoped in the* *Lord fro the everlastinge worldis.* - Old MS. BIBLE.

Verse [Isaiah 26:8](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/8). ***Have we waited for thee***- "We have placed our confidence in thy name"] The *Septuagint, Syriac*, and *Chaldee* read קוינו *kavinu*, without the pronoun annexed.

Verse [Isaiah 26:9](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/9). ***Have I desired thee*** — *Forty-one* MSS. of Dr. *Kennicott's* and many of *De Rossi's*, (nine ancient,) and *five* editions read אויתיך *ivvithicha*. It is proper to note this; because the second *yod* being omitted in the text, the *Vulgate* and many others have rendered it in the third person.
***When thy judgments***, c.] It would be better to read, When thy judgments were in the earth, the inhabitants of the world have learned (למדו *lamedu*) *righteousness*. Men seldom seek God in *prosperity* they are apt to rest in an earthly portion: but God in mercy embitters this by adversity; then there is a general cry after himself as our chief, solid, and only permanent good.

Verse [Isaiah 26:16](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/16). ***Lord, in trouble have they visited thee*** - "O JEHOVAH, in affliction we have sought thee"] So the *Septuagint* and two MSS. have פקדנוך *pekadnucha*, in the first person plural. And so perhaps it should be צקנו *tsaknu*, in the first person; but how the *Septuagint* read this word is not clear; and this last member of the verse is extremely obscure.
For למו lamo, "on them," the *Septuagint* read לנו *lanu*, "on us," in the first person likewise; a frequent mistake; [Isaiah 10:29](../../../kjv/isaiah/10/29).

Verse [Isaiah 26:18](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/18). ***We have - brought forth wind*** — The learned Professor *Michaelis* explains this image in the following manner: "Rariorem morbum describi, empneumatosin, aut ventosam molam, dictum; quo quae laborant diu et sibi et peritis medicis gravidae videntur,tandemque post omnes verae graviditatis molestias et labored ventum ex utero emittunt: quem morbum passim describunt medici." Syntagma Comment., vol. ii., p. 165. The *empneumatosis*, or windy inflation of the womb, is a disorder to which females are liable. Some have had this in such wise, for a long time together, that they have appeared to themselves, and even to very skilful medical men, to be pregnant; and after having endured much pain, and even the throes of apparent childbearing, they have been eased and restored to health by the emission of a great quantity of wind from the uterus. This disorder is well known to medical men." The *Syriac* translator seems to have understood it in this manner: Enixi sumus, ut illae quae ventos pariunt. "We have brought forth as they who bring forth wind."
***In the earth*** - "In the land"] בארץ *bearets*; so a MS., the *Septuagint, Syriac*, and *Vulgate*.

Verse [Isaiah 26:19](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/19). ***My dead body*** - "My deceased"] All the ancient Versions render it in the plural; they read נבלותי *niblothai*, my *dead* *bodies*. The *Syriac* and *Chaldee* read נבלותיהם *niblotheyhem,* their *dead bodies*. No MS. yet found confirms this reading.
***The dew of herbs*** - "The dew of the dawn"] *Lucis*, according to the Vulgate; so also the *Syriac* and *Chaldee*.
The deliverance of the people of God from a state of the lowest depression is explained by images plainly taken from the resurrection of the dead. In the same manner the Prophet Ezekiel represents the restoration of the Jewish nation from a state of utter dissolution by the restoring of the dry bones to life, exhibited to him in a vision, [Ezekiel 37:1-14](../../../kjv/ezekiel/37/1-14), which is directly thus applied and explained, [Ezekiel 37:11-13](../../../kjv/ezekiel/37/11-13). And this deliverance is expressed with a manifest opposition to what is here said above, [Isaiah 26:14](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/14), of the great lords and tyrants, under whom they had groaned: -
*Kimchi* refers these words to the days of the Messiah, and says, "Then many of the saints shall rise from the dead." And quotes [Daniel 12:2](../../../kjv/daniel/12/2). Do not these words speak of the *resurrection* of our blessed Lord; and of that resurrection of the *bodies of men*, which shall be the consequence of *his body* being raised from the dead?
***Thy dead*****men*****shall live*****, - with*****my dead body shall they arise.*** — This seems very express.

Verse [Isaiah 26:20](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/20). ***Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers*** — An exhortation to patience and resignation under oppression, with a confident expectation of deliverance by the power of God manifestly to be exerted in the destruction of the oppressor. It seems to be an allusion to the command of Moses to the Israelites, when the destroying angel was to go through the land of Egypt, "not to go out at the door of their houses until the morning;" [Exodus 12:22](../../../kjv/exodus/12/22). And before the passage of the Red Sea: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of JEHOVAH. JEHOVAH shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace," [Exodus 14:13-14](../../../kjv/exodus/14/13-14).

Verse [Isaiah 26:21](../../../kjv/isaiah/26/21). ***The earth also shall disclose her blood*** — Crimes of cruelty and oppression, which have passed away from the eyes of men, God will bring into judgment, and exact punishment for them. O what a reckoning will the kingdoms of the earth have with God, for the torrents of blood which they have shed for the gratification of the lust of power and ambition! Who shall live when he doeth this?

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