12 O Jehovah, Thou appointest peace to us, For, all our works also Thou hast wrought for us. 13 O Jehovah our God, lords have ruled us besides Thee, Only, by Thee we make mention of Thy name. 14 Dead—they live not, Rephaim, they rise not, Therefore Thou hast inspected and dost destroy them, Yea, thou destroyest all their memory. 15 Thou hast added to the nation, O Jehovah, Thou hast added to the nation, Thou hast been honoured, Thou hast put far off all the ends of earth. 16 O Jehovah, in distress they missed Thee, They have poured out a whisper, Thy chastisement 'is' on them. 17 When a pregnant woman cometh near to the birth, She is pained—she crieth in her pangs, So we have been from Thy face, O Jehovah. 18 We have conceived, we have been pained. We have brought forth as it were wind, Salvation we do not work in the earth, Nor do the inhabitants of the world fall. 19 'Thy dead live—My dead body they rise. Awake and sing, ye dwellers in the dust, For the dew of herbs 'is' thy dew, And the land of Rephaim thou causest to fall.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 26:12-19
Commentary on Isaiah 26:12-19
(Read Isaiah 26:12-19)
Every creature, every business, any way serviceable to our comfort, God makes to be so; he makes that work for us which seemed to make against us. They had been slaves of sin and Satan; but by the Divine grace they were taught to look to be set free from all former masters. The cause opposed to God and his kingdom will sink at last. See our need of afflictions. Before, prayer came drop by drop; now they pour it out, it comes now like water from a fountain. Afflictions bring us to secret prayer. Consider Christ as the Speaker addressing his church. His resurrection from the dead was an earnest of all the deliverance foretold. The power of his grace, like the dew or rain, which causes the herbs that seem dead to revive, would raise his church from the lowest state. But we may refer to the resurrection of the dead, especially of those united to Christ.