Isaiah 54:7
in Isaiah 54“For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
KJV
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
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This verse in Isaiah 54
Commentary
12 notes on this verse(Verse 6, 7) Because the Lord has called you, a forsaken and grieving woman, with the Spirit: and said your God to the wife rejected from her youth. For a moment, in a small thing, I have forsaken you: and in great mercies, I will gather you. In a moment of anger, I have hidden my face from you for a little while: and in everlasting mercy, I have shown compassion to you, says your Redeemer, the Lord.
This site's exposition
For a brief moment I forsook you
on Isaiah 54:7-8
“For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back” sets the exile against the kindness that follows it. Verse 8 repeats the contrast. The earlier laments felt the forsaking as total, and here the anger is brief and the mercy has no end.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
I seem, indeed, to hear that voice from him who gathers together those who are broken and welcomes the oppressed.… The measure of his kindness exceeds the measure of his discipline. The former things were owing to our wickedness, the present things to the adorable Trinity, the former for our cleansing, the present for my Glory.
These friends of the Jews insult the abandoned woman and the wife despised from her youth, whom the Lord left for a moment and for a little while, saying that Jerusalem is. He who hides his face for a little while will receive her in everlasting mercies and will change her past sorrow into joy.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, he promises increase of honor as to the great number of honors: said your God, for a small moment, you have suffered in respect of the things which, taking pity, I will grant you: for that which is at present, is momentary (2 Cor …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
For a small moment have I forsaken thee,.... The people of God seem to be forsaken by him when he hides his face from them, as it is afterwards explained; when they are in distress, and he does not immediately appear for them; when they are afflicted in body and mind, though these afflictions are but for a moment; nor are they really forsaken, not as to things temporal or spiritual; God never forsakes the work of his own hands, nor his people, at least for ever, or so as that they shall perish.
How sorrowful the church's condition had been. She had been as a woman forsaken, whose husband was dead, or had fallen out with her, though she was a wife of youth, upon which account she is grieved in spirit, takes it very ill, frets, and grows melancholy upon it; or she had been as one refused and rejected, and therefore full of discontent.
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
As he is slow to anger, so he is swift to show mercy. The afflictions of God's people, as they are light, so they are but for a moment, a cloud that presently blows over. How sweet the returns of mercy would be to them when God should come and comfort them according to the time that he had afflicted them.
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
For a small moment - The Chaldee and Syriac render this, ‘In a little anger.’ Lowth has adopted this, but without sufficient authority. The Hebrew means, ‘For a little moment;’ a very short time. The reference here is probably to the captivity at Babylon, when they were apparently forsaken by Yahweh. Though to them this appeared long, yet compared with their subsequent prosperity, it was but an instant of time. Though this had probably a primary reference to the captivity then, yet there can be no impropriety in applying it to other similar cases.
THIS precious passage is the property of all true Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We might not have ventured to say this if it were not for the last verse of the chapter, which assures us that it is so. "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, says the Lord."
THIS precious passage is the property of all true Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We might not have ventured to say this if it were not for the last verse of the chapter, which assures us that it is so. "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, says the Lord." The matchless promises and assurances of this chapter do not belong to the Jews, alone, nor only to the Gentile Church, nor even exclusively to the whole Church considered as a community—they are the property of all who are sons and servants of the living God. Isaiah speaks of both sonship and service. "This is the heritage," or portion obtained by heirship, which implies sonship. The promise, then, is ours, if we have been born into the family of Grace. But then, all God's sons are also servants, even as the Firstborn among many brethren became a Servant of servants for our sakes. Judge yourselves, dear Friends, as to whether you are sons of God by birth and servants of God by choice, for if you are, then you may take these promises to yourselves. In the last clause it is written, "Their righteousness is of Me, says the Lord." In this we can claim our part, for we have no righteousness of our own! But it has pleased the Lord to work a righteousness for us and a righteousness in us, since we stood in great need of both of these. Neither could we, by any means, have procured them for ourselves. If the Lord Jesus had not been made unto us both our justification and our sanctification, we could have had no hope of seeing the face of God with acceptance. If we are sons by regeneration and servants by the renewal of our nature. And if our righteousness, both imputed and imparted, is found in God, alone, then the text is ours most richly to enjoy! Stand not back from a table so richly spread, but eat and drink abundantly of its dainty provisions.
For a small moment “In a little anger” - So the Chaldee and Syriac, either reading רגז regaz, for רגע rega; or understanding the latter word as meaning the same with the former, which they both make use of. See Psa 30:5; Psa 35:20, in the Septuagint, where they render רגע rega by οργη, anger.
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּרֶ֥גַע | berega' | for a moment | H7281 → | 22 times |
| קָטֹ֖ן | katon | small | H6996 → | 101 times |
| עֲזַבְתִּ֑יךְ | ʾazavtikh | I abandoned you | H5800 → | 215 times |
| וּבְרַחֲמִ֥ים | uverachamim | and in compassion<s> | H7356 → | 45 times |
| גְּדֹלִ֖ים | gedolim | great | H1419 → | 526 times |
| אֲקַבְּצֵֽךְ׃ | ʾakabetzekh | I will gather you | H6908 → | 127 times |
בְּרֶ֥גַעfor a moment
berega'H7281 →22 times
קָטֹ֖ןsmall
katonH6996 →101 times
עֲזַבְתִּ֑יךְI abandoned you
ʾazavtikhH5800 →215 times
וּבְרַחֲמִ֥יםand in compassion<s>
uverachamimH7356 →45 times
גְּדֹלִ֖יםgreat
gedolimH1419 →526 times
אֲקַבְּצֵֽךְ׃I will gather you
ʾakabetzekhH6908 →127 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
Isaiah 26:20Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed.
it leads to
- Isaiah 54:7–8
“For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will bring you back.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 30:5
For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.
- Psalms 27:5
For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will set me high upon a rock.
- Matthew 6:6
But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
- Psalms 91:4
He will cover you with His feathers; under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and rampart.
- Isaiah 54:7–8
Through
2 Peter 3:8Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
it leads to
- Psalms 90:4
For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.
- Psalms 90:4
Through
Psalms 30:5For His anger is fleeting, but His favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay the night, but joy comes in the morning.
it leads to
- 2 Corinthians 4:17
For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.
- Psalms 126:5–6
Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.
- 2 Corinthians 4:17
Where this verse is studied
About Isaiah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1306: “Fat Things, Full of Marrow” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Gregory of Nazianzus, THE LAST FAREWELL, ORATION 42:7; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.