Isaiah 63:18
in Isaiah 63For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thy holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
KJV
The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
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This verse in Isaiah 63
Commentary
4 notes on this verseon Isaiah 63:18-19
(Verse 18, 19.) Why have you made us err, O Lord, from your ways: you have hardened our heart, so that we would not fear you? Turn again for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance. Your holy people have possessed nothing: our enemies have trampled upon your sanctuary. We have become like in the beginning: when you did not rule over us, neither was your name invoked upon us. LXX: Why have you led us astray, O Lord, from your holy way: you have hardened our hearts, so that we would not fear you?
This site's exposition
O Lord, why hast thou made us to err
on Isaiah 63:17-19
The prayer grows bold enough to ask why God let them wander from his ways and hardened their heart from his fear, language the older commentators read as describing the Lord's judicial withdrawal rather than an author of the sin itself, a hardening that follows persistent rebellion rather than causing it. The plea for return is grounded in ownership, thy servants, the tribes of thine inheritance, not in any merit of their own. Verse 18 laments that the people of thy holiness held the land only a little while before adversaries trod down the sanctuary, and verse 19 closes the chapter on the rawest line of the prayer, we are thine, thou never barest rule over them, they were not called by thy name. Gill reads the closing verses as the hinge into chapter 64's still bolder prayer, the plea only intensifying from here.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
"Though we are the people of thy holiness, distinguished from other people and consecrated to thee, yet we are soon dislodged." But this they might thank themselves for; they were, in profession, the people of God's holiness, but it was their wickedness that turned them out of the possession of that land.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while “It is little that they have taken possession of thy holy mountain” - The difficulty of the construction in this place is acknowledged on all hands.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לַמִּצְעָ֕ר | lamitzar | for <the> little while | H4705 → | |
| יָרְשׁ֖וּ | yareshu | they possessed | H3423 → | 231 times |
| עַם־ | ʾam- | [the] people of | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| קָדְשֶׁ֑ךָ | kodshecha | holiness your | H6944 → | 469 times |
| צָרֵ֕ינוּ | tzareinu | opponents our | H6862 → | 109 times |
| בּוֹסְס֖וּ | bosu | they have trodden down | H947 → | 12 times |
| מִקְדָּשֶֽׁךָ׃ | mikdashecha | sanctuary your | H4720 → | 75 times |
לַמִּצְעָ֕רfor <the> little while
lamitzarH4705 →
יָרְשׁ֖וּthey possessed
yareshuH3423 →231 times
עַם־[the] people of
ʾam-H5971 →1873 times
קָדְשֶׁ֑ךָholiness your
kodshechaH6944 →469 times
צָרֵ֕ינוּopponents our
tzareinuH6862 →109 times
בּוֹסְס֖וּthey have trodden down
bosuH947 →12 times
מִקְדָּשֶֽׁךָ׃sanctuary your
mikdashechaH4720 →75 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Peter 2:9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
it leads to
- Exodus 19:5–6
Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Deuteronomy 7:6
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of…
- Revelation 1:6
who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.
- Revelation 5:10
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.”
- Isaiah 61:6
But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their…
- Exodus 19:5–6
Through
Deuteronomy 7:6For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 14:2
for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all the peoples on the face of the…
- 1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- Malachi 3:17
“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
- Deuteronomy 14:2
About Isaiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.