Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 26:16
LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer [when] thy chastening [was] upon them.
16. in trouble (“distress” or “straits,” as ch. Isa 25:4) have they visited thee ] i.e. sought after thee. The verb might also mean “missed thee” felt their need of thee. This was no doubt a spiritual gain, but the author’s complaint is that so little outward benefit has accrued from the nation’s discipline of sorrow.
they poured out upon them ] A difficult clause. The rendering of A.V. (and R.V.) is perhaps the best that can be made of the received text, but it can hardly be defended. The root-meaning of the word for “prayer” is “whisper,” but in usage it is confined to the sense of “enchantment.” It is questionable if it could mean “whispered prayer,” although the cognate verb in 2Sa 12:19 and Psa 41:7 might be appealed to in support of this view. Moreover, the verbal form “they poured out” is anomalous, and the syntax of “when thy chastisement was upon them” is at least hard. The only alternative translation that requires notice is that of Koppe (adopted by several good commentators): “the binding of a spell was thy chastisement unto them,” i.e. it acted on them with the potency of a spell. The construction there is easy enough and the textual change is only in the vowel-points; but the noun “binding” (“pressure”) does not occur, and the simile is perhaps too bold.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
16 18. The poet plunges abruptly into a train of reflection on the depressing side of the nation’s experience.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Poured out a prayer – Margin, Secret speech. The Hebrew word 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 26:16
Lord, in trouble have they visited Thee
God a harbour of refuge
It is a blessed loss that makes us find our God! What we gain is in finitely more than what we have lost.
What a mercy that God is willing to hear us in the time of trouble, that all our putting off and rejection of Him do not make Him put us off! I remember one who wished to hire a conveyance to go to a certain town, and he went to the place where he could hire it, and asked the price; he thought that it was too much, so he went round the town to other people, and found that he could not get it any cheaper; but when he came back to the place visited first, the man said to him, Oh, no, no! I will not let my horses to you. You have been round to everybody else, and now you come back to me because you cannot get what you want elsewhere; I will have nothing to do with you. That is mans way of dealing with his fellow man; but it is not the Lords method of dealing with us. When you and I have gone round to everybody else, the Lord still welcomes us when we come back to Him. Yes, just as harbours of refuge are meant for ships in distress that would not have put in there except for the storm and danger, such is the mercy of the Lord God in Jesus Christ. If you are forced to accept it, you are still welcome to it. If you are driven to it by stress of weather, you may come in, for the harbour was made for just such as you are. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee – “O JEHOVAH, in affliction we have sought thee”] So the Septuagint and two MSS. have pekadnucha, in the first person plural. And so perhaps it should be 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 lamo, “on them,” the Septuagint read lanu, “on us,” in the first person likewise; a frequent mistake; See Clarke on Isa 10:29.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They, to wit, thy people, as appears both from the matter of this verse, and from the following verses.
Visited thee; come into thy presence, with their prayers and supplications, as the next clause explains it.
They poured out; which notes the plenty or rather the earnestness of their prayers, as Psa 42:4; 142:2.
A prayer, Heb. a muttering or lowly speech, such as charmers use, and such as Hezekiah used when he was in great distress, Isa 38:14, Like a crane or swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove; and such as is usual in case of great humiliation and dejection of mind. When thy chastening was upon them; when thou wast punishing them for their sins.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. visitedsought.
poured out (Ps62:8), as a vessel emptying out all its contents.
prayerliterally, “awhispered prayer,” Margin, “a secret sighing”to God for help (compare Jer 13:17;Deu 8:16).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Lord, in trouble have they visited thee,…. This, and the two following verses Isa 26:17, 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, Ho 5:15:
they poured out a prayer; or “muttering” e; 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.
e “mussitationem”, Montanus; “submissam orationem”, Junius & Tremellius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The tephillah now returns to the retrospective glance already cast in Isa 26:8, Isa 26:9 into that night of affliction, which preceded the redemption that had come. “Jehovah, in trouble they missed Thee, poured out light supplication when Thy chastisement came upon them. As a woman with child, who draws near to her delivery, writhes and cries out in her pangs, so were we in Thy sight, O Jehovah. We went with child, we writhed; it was as if we brought forth wind. We brought no deliverance to the land, and the inhabitants of the world did not come to the light.” The substantive circumstantial clause in the parallel line, , c astigatione tua eos affilgente ( as in Isa 26:9), corresponds to ; and , a preterite etire = , Job 28:2; Job 29:6, to be poured out and melt away) with Nun paragogic (which is only met with again in Deu 8:3, Deu 8:16, the yekoshun in Isa 29:21 being, according to the syntax, the future of kosh ), answers to pakad , which is used here as in Isa 34:16; 1Sa 20:6; 1Sa 25:15, in the sense of lustrando desiderare . Lachash is a quiet, whispering prayer (like the whispering of forms of incantation in Isa 3:3); sorrow renders speechless in the long run; and a consciousness of sin crushes so completely, that a man does not dare to address God aloud (Isa 29:4). Pregnancy and pangs are symbols of a state of expectation strained to the utmost, the object of which appears all the closer the more the pains increase. Often, says the perfected church, as it looks back upon its past history, often did we regard the coming of salvation as certain; but again and again were our hopes deceived. The first is equivalent to , “as a woman with child,” etc. (see at Isa 8:22); the second is equivalent to , “as it were, we brought forth wind.” This is not an inverted expression, signifying we brought forth as it were wind; but governs the whole sentence in the sense of “(it was) as if.” The issue of all their painful toil was like the result of a false pregnancy ( empneumatosis), a delivery of wind. This state of things also proceeded from Jehovah, as the expression “before Thee” implies. It was a consequence of the sins of Israel, and of a continued want of true susceptibility to the blessings of salvation. Side by side with their disappointed hope, Isa 26:18 places the ineffectual character of their won efforts. Israel’s own doings – no, they could never make the land into (i.e., bring it into a state of complete salvation); and (so might the final clause be understood) they waited in vain for the judgment of Jehovah upon the sinful world that was at enmity against them, or they made ineffectual efforts to overcome it. This explanation is favoured by the fact, that throughout the whole of this cycle of prophecies yoshbe tebel does not mean the inhabitants of the holy land, but of the globe at large in the sense of “the world” (Isa 26:21; Isa 24:5-6). Again, the relation of to the in Isa 26:19, land the figure previously employed of the pains of child-birth, speak most strongly in favour of the conclusion, that naphal is here used for the falling of the fruit of the womb (cf., Wis. 7:3, Il. xix. 110, and ). And yoshbe tebel (the inhabitants of the world) fits in with this sense (viz., that the expected increase of the population never came), from the fact that in this instance the reference is not to the inhabitants of the earth; but the words signify inhabitants generally, or, as we should say, young, new-born “mortals.” The punishment of the land under the weight of the empire still continued, and a new generation did not come to the light of day to populate the desolate land (cf., Psychol. p. 414).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
16. O Jehovah, in tribulation they have visited thee. This might be explained as relating to hypocrites, who never flee to God but when they have been constrained by distresses and afflictions. But since the Lord instructs believers also by chastisements, as the Prophet formerly shewed, (Isa 26:8,) I choose rather to refer it simply to them, that not only they may know that God has justly punished them, but that the bitterness of the afflictions may likewise be sweetened by the good result of the chastisement, and that they may be better instructed in the fear of the Lord, and may profit more and more every day. Isaiah therefore speaks in the person of the Church, that whenever godly men read this statement, they might acknowledge that amidst their distresses and afflictions they were nearer to God than when they enjoyed prosperity, by means of which almost always (such is the depravity of our nature) we become excessively proud and insolent. On this account we must be curbed and tamed by chastisements; and this thought will soften the harshness of punishments, and make us less ready to shrink from them if we think that they are profitable to us.
They poured out a prayer. The Hebrew word לחש ( lăchăsh) (179) signifies a muttering. This word therefore must not be taken for a prayer pronounced in words, (180) but for that which indicates that the heart is wrung with sore pains, as those who are tortured by extreme anguish can hardly speak or express the feelings of their hearts. It therefore denotes, that calling upon God which is sincere and free from all hypocrisy; such as men will aim at when in sore affliction they utter groans as expressive of intense pain. In prosperity men speak with open mouths; but when they are cast down by adversity, they hardly venture to mutter, and express their feelings with the heart rather than with the tongue. Hence arise those unutterable groans of which Paul speaks. (Rom 8:26.) It is in reference to the godly, therefore, that Paul makes this declaration, and to them must this doctrine be limited; for wicked men, although some lamentations are extorted from them by pain, become more hardened and more and more obstinate and rebellious.
(179) Bogus footnote
(180) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
PRAYER IN TROUBLE
Isa. 26:16. Lord, in trouble, &c.
Every man knows what trouble is; what it is to lie under the chastening hand of God. In the day of trouble, we feel our dependence on external help. Some in adversity seek friends whom they neglect in prosperity. Happy is he who, when trouble comes, finds himself surrounded by true friends. Acquire the art of keeping your friends. But there are troubles to which human sympathy and help are inadequate. Times when mens thoughts drift towards God. Trouble reminds us of the unseen, the spiritual, the eternal. It quickens the spiritual sense by casting the fierce light of eternity on the things of time. Men visit God in trouble by pouring out to Him their prayers.
I. Some pray in trouble, who are prayerless at other times. Multitudes live entirely without prayer. Taught by mothers in infancy. For a considerable part of ripening youth they maintained the habit. But began to neglect, were afraid of ridicule, or fell into sinful indulgence; it would appal them to think how long it is since they poured out one prayer to God. Surprising that with God so near, so many should habitually turn away and never seek His face. But some heavy trouble comes. They pause, recollect themselves, remember the long years of misspent time, pray, promise, and vow (H. E. I., 69).
Does this always continue when the trouble has departed? Is not this often the history? The cloud breaks, the sun bursts out again, the man forgets that the sun was ever hid. Ship in storm. Cries, prayers, vows. Ship is saved. Prayers cease; revelry is resumed. How often on the bed of sickness are prayers and promises uttered which are forgotten with returning health. Pharaoh alarmed by the successive plagues. Besought Moses to pray. Hardened his heart again. The children of Israel repeatedly fell into idolatry. Visited with judgments. Cried to the Lord. When punishment was withdrawn returned to the sin. Conviction is not conversion; awakening not repentance. If the heart remains unchanged, a man will only pray as long as he is alarmed (H. E. I., 38773879.)
II. Some begin to pray in trouble, and continue to pray afterwards. Many have had to thank God for trouble. Borne along the stream of prosperity towards destruction. Some obstruction. It was unwelcome. It compelled examination. It revealed the yawning falls a little way beyond. Just in time to return. Every human soul requires one such grand interruption of its career. Grace of God employs various means for its effectuation. Trouble is one (Hos. 5:15). The souls deep sin, danger, need, has been revealed. The cry has gone up to heaven. It was the cry of true repentance and humble faith in the Crucified One. Comes from the trouble a new mana praying man (Manasseh, 2Ch. 33:10-13. The prodigal son, Luk. 15:14-21).
III. Some pray habitually, but especially in trouble. Prayer is the special characteristic of a Christian. It is his vital breath. He cannot fail to establish stated seasons of prayer, both public and private. He endeavours to maintain the spirit of prayer. By its aid the blood of the spiritual life is kept in circulation. An important sense in which he prays without ceasing (H. E. I., 38663879; P. D., 2839). And every remarkable event is made the occasion of special prayer. Certainly trouble is one of these. Do you not go to God in your sorrows, as a child goes to his father or his mother? Bishop Reynolds says: A godly heart is like those flowers which shut when the sun sets, and open again when the sun returns and shines upon them. Hannah prayed silently so long as she was in bitterness of spirit; but as soon as God answered her prayer and filled her heart with joy, presently her mouth was enlarged into a song of thanksgiving. In trouble you pray,
1. for deliverance, in submission to the Divine will.
2. More especially for a sanctified use of trouble; complete submission, faith, purification (Php. 4:6-7).J. Rawlinson.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
3. JUSTICES OPERATION
TEXT: Isa. 26:16-21
16
Jehovah, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
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 have we been before thee, O Jehovah.
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.
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.
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.
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.
QUERIES
a.
Why were Gods people in such agony? Isa. 26:16-18
b.
What dead are going to be made to live?
PARAPHRASE
O Jehovah, during their distress and oppression, your faithful remnant visited You, pouring out their hearts in prayer when your correcting discipline was upon them. As a pregnant woman writhes and cries out in her pain as her time to deliver draws near, so were we when we came to You, O Lord, in our prayers for deliverance. We too were in labor; we writhed in pain, but we brought forth windnothing! No deliverance has come from all our pain; no inhabitants of the earth have come to birth through our agony. But, O remnant, those who account themselves dead and cast off will livethey will rise again from oblivion. Those who dwell in dust shall awake and sing, for Gods light of life will fall like refreshing dew upon them. Come, my remnant, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the anger of God is satisfied in the captivities. The Lord is going to come down from his place in heaven to punish your captors and those who oppose you because of their rebellions. The earth cannot hide their guilttheir murderous deeds will be revealedand all those they have slain will be accounted for.
COMMENTS
Isa. 26:16-18 JUSTICE IS SLOW: Batsar is the Hebrew for in trouble and primarily means to bind up, distressed, oppressed. In Isa. 26:16 also is the Hebrew word musareka, translated chastening, which literally means, correction or discipline. We conclude then that Isa. 26:16 is speaking of the corrective discipline by which the Lord had oppressed the Israelites in the past and would afflict them with in the future (the Babylonian captivity). This latter affliction is apparent when one compares the term indignation in Isa. 26:20 with Dan. 8:19; Dan. 11:36, which we shall do later.
These verses represent the prayers of the faithful remnant, in all its history, making known its frustration of looking for justice and deliverance in the midst of its trials and unable to deliver itself. The remnant is driven to hope in Gods justice. Gods justice seems to walk with leaden feet (cf. Hab. 1:1-4; Isa. 59:14; Eze. 9:9; Rev. 6:9-11). So the saints of God cry out, but God is trying them, purging them, building endurance and character, if they will believe and hold fast their hope.
Like a pregnant woman, Israel had endured pain, much anxiety and now, trouble like a woman in the pangs of labor was upon Israel, and she had produced nothing. She knew from her prophets and patriarchs she was to bring to birth a new order, but now all she has is pain and in her anxiety she cries out again. Facing the captivity of the northern kingdom (Israel) and the disintegration of the southern kingdom (Judah) and its inevitable captivity, the faithful remnant (Isaiah, their spokesman) was gripped with frustration and anxiety about its Messianic destiny through which it was to bring deliverance to mankind.
Isa. 26:18 contains the Hebrew word naphal which means birth, or as Leupold says, is used of beasts dropping their young in birth. A better translation of the phrase, . . . neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen would be, . . . no inhabitants of the world came to birth through us. This is better word usage and contextual harmony. The remnants agonized concern was that Gods covenant people had experienced nothing but pain and sorrow when their destiny was to produce a Messianic new-world-order. Thus far they had given birth to nothing at all!
Isa. 26:19-21 JUSTICE IS SURE: But the answer from God through His prophet is, slow as His justice may seem, absolutely and divinely certain. What they think is dead shall live. Gods remnant is a living kingdom, not a dead one. There is some disagreement as to whether Isa. 26:19 refers to personal, individual, physical resurrection from the dead or to a resurrection of the redemptive program of God through the deliverance of the covenant people from the captivities and its subsequent Messianic fulfillment. We tend to accept the latter view. We feel it fits the context more clearly, and such figure is used elsewhere (cf. Hos. 6:1-3; Ezekiel chapter 37; and see our comments, Daniel, College Press, Dan. 12:1 ff). Those who dwell in the dust of death (in captivity) shall awake and sing. English translators translated the Hebrew oroth as herbs, but it would better be, light. Thus we have paraphrased it: . . . for Gods light of life will fall like refreshing dew upon them. See Hos. 14:4-7 for the life-giving refreshment of dew.
It is specifically Gods people, the remnant, who are promised more than warned to hide themselves for a little while until the indignation is past. God invites them, Come, enter into thy chambers. He will protect them during the indignation. The Hebrew word used here for indignation is zaam and is the same word used in Dan. 8:19; Dan. 11:36; and also Dan. 11:30 where it is translated enraged (RSV). See our comments on Dan. 8:19, Daniel, College Press, pg. 313. The time of the indignation is the same as the troublous time of Dan. 9:24-27the time for Gods accomplishing through the Jewish nation all that He is going to accomplish which will come to a culmination at the birth and death of the Messiah. In other words, the faithful remnant is going to have to endure a time of indignation/trouble from the time of the Babylonian captivities, through Persian domination, Greek domination, Seleucid domination, Roman domination until Christ is born. At His birth comes the long sought for deliverance (cf. Luk. 1:67-79; Luk. 2:25-38). At His birth comes the resurrection of the remnants Messianic destinyits very life. The indignation, though it will last some 600 years, is only a little while with God. All during that time God is chastening, delivering, preparing them to become a people through which He can bring to birth His new order, His new covenant, the church.
God is going to do it. The guilty world cannot hide itself or its guilt. It cannot forego Jehovahs deliverance of the remnant. Gods word is sure!
QUIZ
1.
What kind of trouble were these people suffering?
2.
How intense was their trouble?
3.
Why were they perturbed that they had brought forth nothing?
4.
What did they expect to bring forth?
5.
How will the dead live?
6.
What is the indignation?
7.
What is the message about Gods justice here?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(16) Lord, in trouble have they visited thee.Better, have they missed Thee (as in 1Sa. 20:6; 1Sa. 25:15), or sought after Thee, or, remembered Thee.
They poured out a prayer . . .The word for prayer is a peculiar one, commonly used, as in Isa. 3:3; Isa. 8:19, for the whispered incantations of the heathen. Here it appears to mean the low-toned prayers, pitched as in a minor key, of the afflicted. In Isa. 29:4 we have the same thought more fully developed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16-18. Back to Israel’s night of affliction perhaps before, and certainly during, the captivity is the glance again taken. See Isa 26:8-9.
In trouble they visited thee “They,” the then faithful of Israel, sought to find thee.
They poured out a prayer Not an audible, but a whispered, prayer: like Hannah’s prayer, from the heart’s depths. So the word here means. Its object was the nation’s salvation from overthrow and captivity. So felt the prophets and holy ones of Judah. But in vain. Calamities would come, because Judah’s sin, now socially and poetically crystallized, required them. The prayer was an agony, like that of women near to birth-giving. The prayer continued long into the night of the captivity. In ineffectual praying they almost gave themselves up as dead.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
For In Contrast To The Leaders of the Nations God’s People Will Live and Rise Again While before This The World Must Face Its Judgment ( Isa 26:16-21 ).
Isaiah now makes the context of what he is saying quite clear. He is referring to the time of the consummation of all things when all who are His will be resurrected, when death will be no more (Isa 25:7-8), and when God will have triumphed over all. But it is not yet. His people having suffered must wait a little while more for the troubles to pass and for God to carry out His judgments before they enter into their own (Isa 26:20).
These words must have come as a wonderful new revelation to his hearers. We have had revealed to us so much about the resurrection that we cannot even begin to conceive of what the impact of Isaiah’s words must have been. For while there had been hints about the possibility in the Psalms, never before had the idea of a future life for all those who had died faithful to God been so clearly proclaimed. And yet as with all prophecy at this time it was in terms of a resurrection to life on earth. Any other portrayal would have been to involve people’s thoughts in the mythical world of the gods.
Analysis.
a O Yahweh, in trouble have they visited you, they poured out a whisper (choked plea?) when your chastening was on them. Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her agonies, so have we been before you, O Yahweh. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were produced wind. We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.’
b Your dead will live, my dead bodies will arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust.
b For your dew is as the dew of lights, and the earth will cast forth the shades.
a Come, my people, enter into your chambers and shut your doors about you. Hide yourself for a little moment until the indignation is gone by. For behold Yahweh comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will not cover her slain
In ‘a’ God’s people have been through a great time of trouble and pain but are aware that they have produced nothing and have accomplished nothing. They have not been able to deliver themselves, nor to bring down the inhabitants of the inhabited world. In the parallel they must hide themselves for Yahweh will now do what they have failed to do. The inhabitants of the earth will now be punished for their iniquity, with the spilling of their blood being clear for all to see. Meanwhile in ‘b’ His people have the assurance that those of them who have died faithful to Him will live again. They will arise and sing for joy. And in the parallel the dew that will fall on them will be a shining light, and the earth will cast them forth (to live again).
Isa 26:16-18
‘Yahweh, in trouble have they visited you, they poured out a whisper (choked plea?) when your chastening was on them. Just as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her agonies, so have we been before you, O Yahweh. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were produced wind. We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.’
Isaiah has no false illusions about his people. Any such illusions had been removed in chapter 6. But he looks back at their history and feels their pain. The ‘they’ (in contrast with ‘we’) has in mind the people of the past. Possibly he has especially in mind Exo 2:23 and the book of Judges (see Jdg 3:9; Jdg 3:15; Jdg 4:3; Jdg 6:6) when again and again His people had cried to Him in their bondage and pleaded for deliverance, and when He had had to chasten them again and again for forgetting Him and seeking other gods. Then they had truly suffered like a woman in childbirth, and they had ‘visited’ Him. The verb ‘visited’ is appropriate. It was not a permanent seeking, but a temporary one. Each time it was only a visit, not a long stay. That was the problem. And that was why they had never got to the point of producing anything worthwhile.
The word for ‘whisper’ is an unusual one, usually used of whispering enchantments. Perhaps Isaiah was trying to convey his view of the unspiritual nature of their cries. They treated God as though He was merely a magical response to their needs. Or perhaps it was to bring out the strangled nature of their prayers. Compare Isa 29:4.
But the same situation is still true. The people now are just like the people then, and Isaiah reverts to ‘we’. The picture is vivid. They have suffered as in childbirth, but they have only produced wind. It has been a phantom pregnancy. They have not accomplished anything. They have wrought no deliverance for themselves, and none of the inhabitants of the world have fallen. They have failed in Yahweh’s purposes. They are still enduring pain and anxiety without any fruit. Their condition is hopeless. No wonder he had described them as a people of unclean lips, for they had broken His covenant (Isa 6:5). So if God enlarges the nation it will not be because they have somehow deserved it. And yet, remarkably He will do so. It will be all of His undeserved favour, His grace.
‘Nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.’ The root for the word ‘fallen’ is elsewhere used in the form of a noun (nephel) to indicate a miscarriage, and ‘untimely birth’ (Job 3:16; Ecc 6:3). Thus ‘to fall’ may well indicate childbirth, which would admirably fit the context of birthpangs. This would then be a confession that they had produced none of the fruit among the inhabitants of the world that they should have. They had not brought any of them to spiritual birth.
But more likely the thought is simply that Israel’s rise could only result from the ‘fall’ of their adversaries into the grave, and they have failed in that too. They have been powerless to deliver themselves or inflict injury on their enemies.
We can compare for this use of ‘fallen’ how the king of Babylon is described as having fallen into the grave (Isa 14:11-12; Isa 14:15; Isa 14:19), and Babylon is described forcibly as having ‘fallen’ along with her gods, broken into the ground (Isa 21:9), and thus becoming dust, a dual contrast to the next verse.
Isa 26:19
‘Your dead will live, my dead bodies will arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust. For your dew is as the dew of lights, and the earth will cast forth the shades.’
Yahweh gives His reply to Isaiah’s confession of the people’s guilt and unworthiness. And what a reply. They may have failed, but their God will not fail. Like a bolt from the blue comes the promise of the bodily resurrection of the true people of God. This is in direct contrast with Isa 26:14 where the dead leaders of the nations would not live, and would not rise, but would remain in the grave, something which is stressed. It cannot therefore be seen as anything but literal, and a literal meaning is in fact required. Here the earth casts forth ‘the shades’ of His people because the dew of light has fallen on them. Such shades cannot be held back in the grave.
A figurative ‘national resurrection’ simply meaning that Israel came back to God and were restored would be a poor contrast to Isa 26:14, which did not simply mean that the lords of the nations would subside into anonymity. There the great stress was on the fact that they had literally died and would not live again. Life had been taken from them. Here therefore in startling contrast is the opposite situation. Physical death is contrasted with physical life. God’s people truly will live again.
This stark contrast is in line with Isaiah’s emphasis on such stark contrasts. The mountain of Yahweh would attract many nations and would result in worldwide peace (Isa 2:2-4), while the day of Yahweh would come with dreadful intensity and result in terror and the shaking of the earth (Isa 2:10-21). Ahaz had refused a miraculous and marvellous sign, and so God would give him an even more miraculous and marvellous sign (chapter Isa 7:11-14). The strong city would arise and prosper permanently, the city of wastedness would fall into the dust (Isa 26:1; Isa 26:5). Thus here there is the contrast that the leaders of the nations would die and would not live or rise again, but that God’s people will live and rise again, receiving new life.
Previously Isaiah had spoken of victory over death (Isa 25:8) in preparation for this, but that could have referred to those living, with the suggestion that they would no more die. Here, however, the promise is unequivocally that the faithful who are already dead will live bodily, for ‘the earth will cast forth the shades’. And it was contextually necessary, otherwise the counter-argument could have been that the dead people of God had also permanently become shades. The force of the whole passage comes from the fact that they did not do so.
So the failure of His people will be countermanded. In spite of their failure they will be raised from the dead. Even while they admitted that they were totally undeserving, God breaks in with the promise of their resurrection. For this was not something that they could deserve. It would be all of God’s mercy.
It was only because it was so stupendous a thought that it had never risen before. Psalmists could not believe that death was the end for those who truly knew God, but they never articulated it in detail (see Psa 16:10-11; Psa 17:15; Psa 23:6; etc). Enoch and Elijah were also seen as men who had never died, but they were not seen as rising from the dead. This is different. It builds on those examples but with new significance. All the righteous will live again.
‘Your dead will live, my dead bodies will arise.’ This is in direct contrast with ‘dead they will not live, shades they will not arise’ (Isa 26:14). There they were shades, but here in the parallel phrases they are not described as shades but as dead bodies. There is a reality about them that survives. So these dead will live. They are awaiting the resurrection. ‘Your’ refers to Isaiah and Israel, ‘my’ refers to God. The dead belong to Israel, but their dead bodies are His, He retains control over them. Those who belong to Him, but only those who are His, will arise.
‘Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust.’ The lofty city was brought down to the dust (Isa 26:5), but those brought down to the dust in death as a result of the activities of those from the lofty city will be raised from the dust. Their enemies could gloat in the fact that they had become just dust, no more to have any meaningful existence, but instead they can awake and sing, for new life is to be theirs. The original warning to man was that he was dust and because of his sin he would return to dust (Gen 3:19). Thus for these who will rise again the curse has been removed.
‘For your dew is as the dew of lights, and the earth will cast forth the shades.’ Note the contrast between ‘lights’ and ‘shades’. Where light comes there can be no more shade. So just as the falling dew brings life to the earth, so does the dew of God’s light fall to bring life to His dead bodies, so that the earth casts them out. There is no place for that which is alive in the grave, or for shining lights among the shades. It wants nothing to do with life or light. The grave is for the shades of what men were.
‘The dew of lights’. The plural is probably a plural of intensity referring to intense light and divine light (compare Psa 104:2). Thus we may see this as signifying ‘divine dew’, the dew of God’s pure light. Or it may especially refer to the light of life seen as dew (Job 3:16; Psa 56:13). The Psalmist said that those who are dead will not see light (Psa 49:19), but that is not true in this case, for the dew of God’s intense light will ensure that these men live again. Alternately there may be in mind the idea of the dew of morning (lights) as connected with the lifegiving manna (Exo 16:14), but the former seems more likely as a contrast to the shades. However whichever way we take it the central thought is of lifegiving dew falling on the deceased chosen of God, as on dead vegetation, so that they live again (compare Hos 14:5).
As we consider this marvellous revelation we soon see that from the context it was required. Yahweh was calling His own to a great feast, where He would swallow up death for ever (Isa 25:6-8), resulting in entry into the strong city (Isa 26:1-2). But of what benefit the strong city for those who had died in God? Had they not gone the way of the leaders of the nations without hope (Isa 26:13-14)? Were they not lost to it? No, replies Isaiah, for they will rise again. It had to be. It was the final triumph. It was a doctrine waiting to happen.
The Coming Indignation ( Isa 26:20-21 ).
Yahweh’s people have suffered pain and anxiety and failure. They admit to having achieved nothing. Now they have been promised resurrection. But it can only be when God has fulfilled His purposes. Thus now for a little while they are to hide themselves away while Yahweh does what they have been unable to do and finalises His work and judgment on the inhabited earth. What their pain has not achieved, Yahweh will now accomplish, the establishment of justice.
We must not just transfer this warning to what we see as ‘the end of the age’ some time in the future. It was a word spoken to the faithful remnant in Isaiah’s day. It is a word spoken to Christians whenever they find themselves in a position where God’s judgments are being revealed in the world. Always His protecting hand will be with them. It is a reminder that as the world again and again faces its judgments God will be watching over His own. And each judgment and series of judgments will be ‘for a little while’. We can compare here Paul’s words in 2Co 4:17. ‘Our light affliction which is but for a moment works for us more and more abundantly an eternal weight of glory’. ‘For the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be rvealed towards us’ (Rom 8:18). And yet it will apply even more as the end approaches.
Isa 26:20-21
‘Come, my people, enter into your chambers and shut your doors about you. Hide yourself for a little moment until the indignation is gone by. For behold Yahweh comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will not cover her slain.’
His people must hide themselves whenever His judgments are in the world, because what He will bring on the world in judgments because of His anger against sin is not for them. The glorious resurrection is coming, but before that final resurrection takes place the world must experience judgment. For ‘the wrath of God is continually revealed from Heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth by unrighteousness’ (Rom 1:18). Thus the resurrection of the righteous cannot come until the time of indignation is over, before God’s anger has been sufficiently revealed in His judgment on the world. Because His people have not brought home to the world His power and His judgment, He will do it Himself. And in the light of this God’s people are to enter their rooms and close the doors. They are to keep out of it. They are not to race into testing but to be prudent and sensible. There is no thought of cultivating martyrdom. For these will be times when God ‘comes from His place’ and punishes the world for their sinfulness and their evil behaviour, and God’s people have no part in it. No murder, whether judicial or private, will go unpunished. The earth that has received the blood of the murder victims will no longer hide it, nor cover up the murders. Rather it will disclose them. As with Abel the blood will cry to God for vengeance from the ground (see Gen 4:8-12), and the earth itself will cooperate in drawing attention to the crimes. We can be sure that men’s sins will find them out. For when the holy Creator and judge of all men approaches, creation itself is ashamed of the sinfulness of man, and gladly plays its part in making it known. ‘Iniquity’ is the inward sinfulness of a man, the blood shed is the outward evidence of it.
‘Shut your doors.’ Compare here ‘open the gates’ (Isa 26:2). There is a time for opening and a time for shutting, a time for marching and a time for hiding. There may be a hint here of Noah entering the Ark to hide from the indignation of the flood, when God shut them in.
This is specifically not a time of tribulation for the people of God, for they are to take cover from it. It is a time when God’s wrath is poured out on the world. The Bible constantly anticipates tribulation for the world right up to the time of the end. Each generation experiences in one way or another the judgments of God, and each generation of Christians receives His protection. And it will so continue to the end. And once Yahweh has punished the world sufficiently for its iniquity, and given it sufficient time to repent (2Pe 3:9), the resurrection can take place.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 26:16-18. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee O JEHOVAH, in affliction have we sought thee. Lowth. The 18th verse may be read, We had conceived; we were in pain; we brought forth as it were wind: As to deliverance, it was not yet perfected in the land, neither had the inhabitants of the world fallen. While the pious believers revolve in their minds the benefits of the present times, they recollect those preceding, in which they had long groaned under various tribulations, from which they could not deliver themselves with all their endeavours: they confess, therefore, that during all that period in which they were compelled to look to and depend upon other Lords, namely, the Egyptians and Syrians, besides God only, they could not emerge. Their prayers were without effect; their expectations were disappointed; and, being seized with pangs, like labouring women, before this time of deliverance for which they trusted solely in God, they had brought forth wind; they had produced nothing; they had done nothing which could at all conduce to their deliverance and salvation. See Vitringa, and Joseph. Antiq. lib. 12: cap. 3.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 26:16 LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer [when] thy chastening [was] upon them.
Ver. 16. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee. ] Pulcherrimus afflictationum fructus, precandi ardor et assiduitas. Affliction exciteth devotion, as blowing doth the fire. Christ in his agony prayed most earnestly. Luk 22:44 Martha and Mary, when their brother Lazarus was sick, sent messengers to Jesus; Joh 11:3 Quos putas nisi suspiria continuata, nisi preces irremissas, saith Scultetus – i.e., what were those messengers but their continued groans and earnest prayers? See Hos 5:15 . See Trapp on “ Hos 5:15 “ Prayer is the daughter of affliction, and the mother of comfort.
They poured out.
A prayer.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
in trouble: Deu 4:29, Deu 4:30, Jdg 10:9, Jdg 10:10, 2Ch 6:37, 2Ch 6:38, 2Ch 33:12, 2Ch 33:13, Psa 50:15, Psa 77:1, Psa 77:2, Psa 91:15, Jer 22:23, Hos 5:15, Hos 7:14, Rev 3:19, thy poured, 1Sa 1:15, Psa 42:4, Psa 142:2, Lam 2:19
prayer: Heb. secret speech.
Reciprocal: Exo 10:17 – and entreat Exo 14:10 – cried out Lev 26:43 – and they Num 14:39 – mourned greatly Jdg 6:6 – cried 1Sa 12:10 – And they 1Sa 12:19 – Pray for thy 2Sa 12:16 – besought 2Ki 13:4 – Jehoahaz Psa 27:5 – For in Psa 62:8 – pour Psa 86:7 – General Isa 16:12 – when Isa 33:2 – our salvation Jer 2:27 – but in the time Lam 2:18 – heart Hos 7:2 – their own Jon 1:14 – they Jon 2:1 – prayed Mic 4:4 – they Joh 16:21 – woman Eph 6:18 – Praying Rev 11:13 – gave
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 26:16-18. O Lord, in trouble Amidst the various calamities brought upon them for their correction and especially in their captivity; have they Namely, thy people; visited thee Come into thy presence with their prayers and supplications; they poured out a prayer Prayed much and earnestly, as the expression implies; when thy chastening was upon them When thou wast punishing them for their sins. Like as a woman is in pain, &c. A comparison often used to express mens consternation under great calamities, from which they cannot deliver themselves; so have we been in thy sight Such has been our anguish and danger, of which thou, O Lord, hast been a witness. We have been with child That is, we have had great expectation of a speedy and happy deliverance, have been big with hopes; and we have been in pain Have comforted ourselves with this, that the joyful birth would make us forget our misery, but, alas! we have, as it were, brought forth wind We have had the torment of a woman in child-bearing, but not the comfort of a living child. We have had no good issue of all our pangs and throes; they did not produce deliverance and ease, as in the case of travailing women, but all our own labours proved abortive: in vain we struggled with our enemies, who were still too mighty for us, and we were utterly unable to effect our deliverance. To bring forth wind, is much the same kind of phrase with feeding on wind, and reaping wind, Hos 12:1; Hos 8:7; and signifies, to take a great deal of pains to no purpose. This seems to be spoken of the siege which the Jewish people endured, and of all their other labours and sufferings to prevent their coming under the Chaldean yoke. Thus the attempt of Zedekiah to withstand Nebuchadnezzar we find only brought greater evils upon the country, 2Ch 36:13. We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth In our land, where we had far greater advantages than we could have had elsewhere. Neither have the inhabitants of the world The Assyrians, Chaldeans, or our other enemies; fallen By our means.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
26:16 LORD, in trouble have they {p} visited thee, they poured out a prayer [when] thy chastening [was] upon them.
(p) That is, the faithful by the rods were moved to pray to you for deliverance.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The period of the judges is a good example of what the prophet wrote here. The Israelites suffered chastening from the Lord for departing from Him, but when they sought Him in their distress, even with just a whispered prayer, He saved them (cf. 1Sa 1:12-15).