Isaiah 63:19
in Isaiah 63We have become like those You never ruled, like those not called by Your name.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
We are become as they over whom thou never barest rule, as they that were not called by thy name.
KJV
We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.
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This verse in Isaiah 63
Commentary
12 notes on this verse(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
Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways
on Isaiah 63:17-19
The prayer grows bold to ask why the LORD makes them “stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You”. It asks for His return on the ground of belonging, “for the sake of Your servants”. Verse 19 ends raw: “We have become like those You never ruled”.
This site's exposition
like those You never ruled
Barnes takes the Hebrew word for from of old with Israel, so the verse claims a belonging to God from ancient times. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown give the reading close to the Berean, Israel long like a people God never ruled. Eusebius hears Israel back in Egypt before Moses.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
The church is often called "the holy mountain" in the sacred Scriptures, and those from Israel are only a small part of it. For if they had demonstrated faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the company of the faith would have sprung from them for the most part and the Gentiles would have been added in to complete the number.
And you did this on account of our turning away from you. For we are now a desert untended by your careful attention. We are now like we were in the beginning. For there was a time when we had neither prophet nor priest not king nor any of your gifts of grace—in like manner we have now come back to the desert. Such were we in Egypt frittering away time before Moses took us out of there. Neither did we have your name to adorn us when we were not called your people, and we did not have a share in your inheritance. And now we have arrived at a similar point. It is right to refer these words to the season after the arrival of our Savior, by whom all those things will in the end be put behind them, through what was dared by our Savior for them.
The holy of holies of the sanctuary, which it was forbidden to touch and to which access was reserved for priests alone, has been despoiled and trampled by impious enemies. For the Babylonians were not the only impious ones; the Macedonians and the Romans were …
The Medieval Church1 voice
As to the loss of their former honor: we are become, without a king, without the temple, as in the beginning, in Egypt, or even before the calling of Abraham: but you, O Lord, are among us, and your name is called upon by us, …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thine - We continue so; we are in covenant, which they never were; and thus it is an argument they use with God to look upon them. Never - Not in that manner thou didst over us.
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
So that, upon the whole, we learn to embrace God's promises with an active faith, and then to improve them, and make use of them, both in prayers and praises. The Triumphs of the Messiah. 1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-run:26w-of-62
We are thine,.... Thy children, thy people, thy subjects.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
We are thine - We urge it as a reason for thy interposition to restore the land and the temple, that we are thine from ancient times. Such I take to be the meaning of the passage - in accordance with the common translation, except that the expression מעולם mē‛ôlâm, ‘from ancient times,’ rendered by our translators in connection with לא lo', ‘never,’ is thus connected with the Jewish people, instead of being regarded as applied to their enemies.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
thine . . . never--rather, "We are Thine from of old; Thou barest not rule over them" [BARNES]. LOWTH translates, "We for long have been as those over whom Thou hast not ruled, who are not called by Thy name"; "for long" thus stands in contrast to "but a little while" (Isa 63:18).
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
The words behind it
9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הָיִ֗ינוּ | hayinu | we have been | H1961 → | 3559 times |
| מֵֽעוֹלָם֙ | meolam | from long ago | H5769 → | 438 times |
| לֹֽא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| מָשַׁ֣לְתָּ | mashalta | you ruled | H4910 → | 81 times |
| בָּ֔ם | bam | over them | ||
| לֹֽא־ | lo'- | not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| נִקְרָ֥א | nikra' | it was called | H7121 → | 733 times |
| שִׁמְךָ֖ | shimkha | name your | H8034 → | 864 times |
| עֲלֵיהֶ֑ם | ʾaleihem | on them | H5921 → | 5755 times |
הָיִ֗ינוּwe have been
hayinuH1961 →3559 times
מֵֽעוֹלָם֙from long ago
meolamH5769 →438 times
לֹֽא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
מָשַׁ֣לְתָּyou ruled
mashaltaH4910 →81 times
בָּ֔םover them
bam
לֹֽא־not
lo'-H3808 →5168 times
נִקְרָ֥אit was called
nikra'H7121 →733 times
שִׁמְךָ֖name your
shimkhaH8034 →864 times
עֲלֵיהֶ֑םon them
ʾaleihemH5921 →5755 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
Romans 9:4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.
it leads to
- Ephesians 2:12
remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 147:19
He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and judgments to Israel.
- Ephesians 2:12
Through
Acts 15:17so that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does these things
it leads to
- Zechariah 2:11
“On that day many nations will join themselves to the LORD, and they will become My people. I will dwell among you, and you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me…
- Zechariah 8:20–23
This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Peoples will yet come—the residents of many cities—
- Isaiah 65:1
“I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. To a nation that did not call My name, I said, ‘Here I…
- Hosea 2:23
And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’ ‘You are My people,’ and they…
- Zechariah 2:11
Through
Acts 14:16In past generations, He let all nations go their own way.
it leads to
- Acts 17:30
Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.
- Acts 17:30
Through
Psalms 135:4For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.
it leads to
- 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.
- 1 Peter 2:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Isaiah
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 5:5.63:18-19; Eusebius of Caesarea, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 2:54; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 20:63.17-19 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.