Isaiah 26:16

16 ADONAI, when they were troubled, they sought you. When you chastened them, they poured out a silent prayer.

Isaiah 26:16 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 26:16

Lord, in trouble have they visited thee
This, and the two following verses ( Isaiah 26:17 Isaiah 26:18 ) , represent the troubles and disappointments of the church and people of God, before the destruction of antichrist; in which time of trouble they will visit the Lord, frequent the throne of grace, as saints in afflictions are wont to do; and sometimes this is the end to be answered by afflictions, ( Hosea 5:15 ) : they poured out a prayer;
or "muttering" ^F5; they will pray with a low voice, in an humble and submissive way, as persons in dejected circumstances; not a few words, but many, will they use; their petitions will be numerous; they will continue praying, and be constant at it, and out of the abundance of their hearts their mouth will speak; and they will pour out their souls and their complaints to the Lord, though privately, and with a low voice, and with groans unutterable: [when] thy chastening [was] upon them;
the afflicting hand of God, not as a punishment, but as a fatherly chastisement upon them; so all their persecutions from men are considered as permitted by the Lord for their instruction and correction; and these will not drive them from God, but bring them to him to seek him by prayer and supplication.

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 (vxl) "mussitationem", Montanus; "submissam orationem", Junius & Tremellius.

Isaiah 26:16 In-Context

14 The dead will not live again, the ghosts will not rise again; for you punished and destroyed them, wiped out all memory of them.

15 You enlarged the nation, ADONAI, you enlarged the nation; and thus you glorified yourself; you extended all the frontiers of the country.

16 ADONAI, when they were troubled, they sought you. When you chastened them, they poured out a silent prayer.

17 As a pregnant woman about to give birth cries out and writhes in her labor pains, so we have been at your presence, ADONAI

18 we have been pregnant and been in pain. But we, as it were, have given birth to wind; we have not brought salvation to the land, and those inhabiting the world have not come to life.