Isaiah 26:19 (ASV)

Passage

Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is [as] the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 26:17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain and crieth out in her pangs; so we have been before thee, O Jehovah.

Isaiah 26:18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

Isaiah 26:19 Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is [as] the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.

Isaiah 26:20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

Isaiah 26:21 For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "dead", "shall", "live", "bodies", "arise", and "awake". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "dead" and "shall", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 18's "We have been with child we have..." into verse 20's "Come my people enter thou into thy...", so "dead" and "shall" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "dead" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.