Amplified Bible
Isaiah 26:16
16O Lord, they sought You in distress; They managed only a prayerful whisper When Your discipline was upon them.
Isaiah 26:16 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
- New International Version (NIV)Lord, they came to you in their distress; when you disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer.
- English Standard Version (ESV)O Lord, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Lord, in trouble they have visited You, They poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them.
Context of Isaiah 26:16
14The [wicked] dead will not live [again], the spirits of the dead will not rise and return; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have wiped out every memory of them [every trace of them]. 15You have increased the nation, O Lord; You have increased the nation, You are glorified; You have extended all the borders of the land. O Lord, they sought You in distress; They managed only a prayerful whisper When Your discipline was upon them. 17As a woman with child approaches the time to give birth, She is in pain and struggles and cries out in her labor, So we were before You, O Lord. 18We have been with child, we have twisted and struggled in labor; We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind. We could not accomplish salvation for the earth, Nor were inhabitants of the world born.
Read all of Isaiah 26Isaiah 26:16 word by word
יְהוָ֖ה בַּצַּ֣ר פְּקָד֑וּךָ צָק֣וּן לַ֔חַשׁ מוּסָרְךָ֖ לָֽמוֹ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Isaiah 26:16
- Deuteronomy 4:29But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.
- Judges 10:9The Ammonites crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was greatly distressed.
- 2 Chronicles 6:37if they take it to heart in the land where they have been taken captive, and repent and pray to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong and have acted wickedly’;
- 2 Chronicles 33:12But when he was in distress, he sought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
- Psalms 50:15Call on Me in the day of trouble; I will rescue you, and you shall honor and glorify Me.”
- Psalms 77:1My voice rises to God, and I will cry aloud; My voice rises to God, and He will hear me.
- Psalms 91:15He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
- Jeremiah 22:23O inhabitant of [Jerusalem, whose palaces are made from the cedars of] Lebanon, You who nest in the cedars, How you will groan and how miserable you will be when pains come on you, Pain like a woman in childbirth!
- Hosea 5:15I will go away and return to My place [on high] Until they acknowledge their offense and bear their guilt and seek My face; In their distress they will earnestly seek Me, saying,
- Hosea 7:14They do not cry out to Me from their heart When they wail on their beds [in unbelieving despair]; For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves [as if worshiping Baal]; They rebel against Me.
- Revelation 3:19Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I rebuke and discipline [showing them their faults and instructing them]; so be enthusiastic and repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will].
- 1 Samuel 1:15But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman with a despairing spirit. I have not been drinking wine or any intoxicating drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord.
- Psalms 42:4These things I [vividly] remember as I pour out my soul; How I used to go along before the great crowd of people and lead them in procession to the house of God [like a choirmaster before his singers, timing the steps to the music and the chant of the song], With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a great crowd keeping a festival.
- Psalms 142:2I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him.
- Lamentations 2:19Arise, cry aloud in the night, At the beginning of the night watches; Pour out your heart like water Before the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to Him For the life of your little ones Who are faint from hunger At the head of every street.”
Commentaries on Isaiah 26:16
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 16Lord, 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; see…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 16Poured out a prayer - Margin, Secret speech.‘ The Hebrew word לחשׁ lachash means properly a whispering, muttering; and thru a sighing, a calling for help. This is the sense here. In their calamity they sighed, and called on God for help.Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 12-19Verses 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…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 16While waiting for God's salvation (Isaiah 26:1), the faithful were in distress and longed for justice. They prayed under the weight of God's discipline. During Hezekiah's time, Judah was in distress when Sennacherib attacked and destroyed the entire nation except for Jerusalem.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1616. visited--sought. poured out--(Psa 62:8), as a vessel emptying out all its contents. prayer--literally, "a whispered prayer," Margin, "a secret sighing" to God for help (compare Jr 13:17; De 8:16).Read the comment
Topics related to Isaiah 26:16
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Isaiah 26
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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