Bible Strands
Isaiah 26:19
Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God speaks to Israel in the midst of judgment (cf. 26:20), promising that the nation's dead will be restored after a period of death.
The words — נְבֵלָתִי (nevelati, "my corpse," H5038) is blunt and first-person: the speaker identifies with the dead body. רַנּוּ (ranu, "shout for joy," H7442) is not a gentle song but an exultant cry.
The thread — Daniel 12:2 places the same "dust of the earth" awakening in an eschatological frame with a judgment split; Ezekiel 37 dramatizes dry bones returning to life by the Spirit; Matthew 27:52 records a historical instance of tombs opening and bodies rising.
Why it lands — The verse refuses to soften death into metaphor; it names the corpse, then commands joy from the dust. It asks the reader to hold bodily resurrection as a concrete event and to hear "awake and sing" as a summons, not a consolation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
Cross-references
- Daniel 12:2 And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.
- Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by His Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones.
- Matthew 27:52 The tombs broke open, and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
- Ephesians 5:14 So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.
- Psalms 71:20 Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.
- Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books.
- Hosea 6:2 After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His presence.
- Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.
- 1 Thessalonians 4:14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we also believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.