Isaiah 26:16

16 O Lord, ¹in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.

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 They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them.

15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

16 O Lord, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them.

17 Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord;

18 we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

Cross References

• 1. 26:16 Hos. 5:15; See ch. 37:1-4