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
11 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
For a short while Your people possessed
Clarke says every interpreter finds the first clause hard to construe. Aquinas reads it as enemies who possessed the holy people without resistance. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown hear an argument in Your sanctuary, for the cause of the people is the cause of the LORD.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, he sets out their misery as to slavery: they have possessed your holy people as nothing, that is, without resistance, above: O Lord our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us (Isa 26:13); as to the profanation of their holy places: …
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
"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.
): Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. As it was a grief to them that in their captivity the generality of them had lost their affection to God's worship, and had their hearts hardened from it by their affliction, so it was a further grief that they were deprived of their opportunities of worshipping God in solemn assemblies.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
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
The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
people of . . . holiness--Israel dedicated as holy unto God (Isa 62:12; De 7:6). possessed--namely, the Holy Land, or Thy "sanctuary," taken from the following clause, which is parallel to this (compare Isa 64:10, 11; Ps 74:6-8). thy--an argument why God should help them; their cause is His cause.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The people of thy holiness - The people who have been received into solemn covenant with thee. Have possessed it but a little while - That is, the land meaning that the time during which they had enjoyed a peaceable possession of it, compared with the perpetuity of the promise made, was short. Such is the idea given to the passage by our translators. But there is considerable variety in the interpretation of the passage among expositors. Lowth renders it: It is little, that they have taken possession of thy holy mountain; That our enemies have trodden down thy sanctuary. Jerome renders it, ‘It is as nothing (quasi nihilum), they possess thy holy people; our enemies have trodden down thy sanctuary.’ The Septuagint renders it, ‘Return on account of thy servants, on account of the tribes of thine inheritance, that we may inherit thy holy mountains for a little time’ ἵνα μικρὸν κληρονομήσωμεν τοῦ ὄρους τοῦ ἁγίου hina mikron klēronomēsōmen tou orous tou hagiou). It has been generally felt that there was great difficulty in the place. See Vitringa. The sense seems to be that which occurs in our translation. The design is to furnish an argument for the divine interposition, and the meaning of the two verses may be expressed in the following paraphrase: ‘We implore thee to return unto us, and to put away thy wrath. As a reason for this, we urge that thy temple thy holy sanctuary - was possessed by thy people but a little time. For a brief period there we offered praise, and met with our God, and enjoyed his favor. Now thine enemies trample it down. They have come up and taken the land, and destroyed thy holy place Isa 64:11. We plead for thine interposition, because we are thy covenant people. Of old we have been thine. But as for them, they were never thine. They never yielded to thy laws. They were never called by thy name. […]
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
Where this verse is studied
On this page
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 on the Book of Isaiah; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.