Isaiah 64:12
in Isaiah 64After all this, O LORD, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Jehovah? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
KJV
Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
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This verse in Isaiah 64
Commentary
12 notes on this verseAnd he wonders at his patience: "will you refrain yourself, O Lord, upon these things?" "Why look you upon our iniquities?" (Hab 1:13).
This site's exposition
Your holy cities have become a wilderness
on Isaiah 64:10-12
The prayer names the ruin, the holy cities a wilderness and Jerusalem “a desolation”. Verse 11 grieves the temple, “Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire”. The chapter ends by asking whether God will “keep silent and afflict us beyond measure”.
This site's exposition
will You restrain Yourself
Henry hears in Will You keep silent the cry of Psalm 83:1 for God to break His silence. Aquinas reads the question as wonder at the patience of the LORD and sets it beside Habakkuk 1:13. The words beyond measure repeat the plea of verse 9.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
The defendants speak of the damage in the soul and that they have been caught in their sins; they are like leaves blown about by every wind and, scattered all over, now remember the external misfortunes that came on them. And the destruction of Jerusalem is deplored along with the temple's burning. For after the Savior's crucifixion, these things were fulfilled.
But if, by our fault or the fault of the people, such a Zion is abandoned by the Lord, immediately the fire of ignited devilish arrows will become evident: for all who commit adultery are like a burning oven in their hearts. And with the coldness of chastity expelled, the flame of lust will rage in the temple of God, so that whatever was glorious and renowned in us before will fall, be destroyed, and perish. And let that which is said in the Psalms be fulfilled: They have burned your sanctuary with fire, they have profaned the tabernacle of your name on earth. Which only He can extinguish, from whose belly flow the rivers of living water.
(Verse 8 and following) And now, Lord, you are our father, and we are clay; you are our potter, and all our works are the work of your hands. Do not be exceedingly angry, Lord, and do not remember our iniquity any longer. Look, your people are all of us. The city of your holy ones has become a desert; Zion has become a desert, Jerusalem is desolate. Our house of sanctification and glory, where our fathers praised you, has become a burning ruin, and all our desirable things have turned to ruins.
Moreover, your house, that is, the sanctuary of our sanctification and glory, in which our fathers praised you, has fallen into ruins and ashes, and has been destroyed by a raging fire, so that no victims are offered in it, no Passover is celebrated, nothing is done of the ceremonies that you commanded to be done, but all our desires have been turned into ruins. ...
If we who bear the name of "your people," he says, are unworthy of your goodwill, judge the city worthy to be spared by reason of its founder, for it has become a desert. And he makes mention of his name [David] in order to …
4 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. 5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
When God is injured in his honour it may justly be expected that he should speak in the vindication of it; his people prescribe not to him what he shall say, but their prayer is (as here) Ps. lxxxiii. 1 , Keep not thou silence, O God! and Ps. cix. 1 , " Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise!
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord?....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Wilt thou refrain thyself - Wilt thou refuse to come to our aid? Wilt thou decline to visit us, and save us from our calamities? Wilt thou hold thy peace - Wilt thou not speak for our rescue, and command us to be delivered? Thus closes this chapter of great tenderness and beauty. It is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for the divine interposition in the day of calamity. With such tender and affectionate earnestness may we learn to plead with God!
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
will You remain silent and afflict us Will You remain silent concerning what is done to us? Until here is the prophet’s prayer. Its beginning is (supra:7) “The kind acts of the Lord I will mention.”
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הַעַל־ | haal- | ¿ on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| אֵ֥לֶּה | ʾeleh | these [things] | H428 → | 746 times |
| תִתְאַפַּ֖ק | titapak | will you restrain yourself | H662 → | 7 times |
| יְהוָ֑ה | yahweh | O Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| תֶּחֱשֶׁ֥ה | techesheh | will you be silent? | H2814 → | 16 times |
| וּתְעַנֵּ֖נוּ | uteanenu | and will you afflict? us | H6031 → | 82 times |
| עַד־ | ʾad- | up to | H5704 → | 1261 times |
| מְאֹֽד׃ ס | meod | muchness | H3966 → | 300 times |
הַעַל־¿ on
haal-H5921 →5755 times
אֵ֥לֶּהthese [things]
ʾelehH428 →746 times
תִתְאַפַּ֖קwill you restrain yourself
titapakH662 →7 times
יְהוָ֑הO Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
תֶּחֱשֶׁ֥הwill you be silent?
techeshehH2814 →16 times
וּתְעַנֵּ֖נוּand will you afflict? us
uteanenuH6031 →82 times
עַד־up to
ʾad-H5704 →1261 times
מְאֹֽד׃ סmuchness
meodH3966 →300 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
Psalms 83:1O God, be not silent; be not speechless; be not still, O God.
it leads to
- Psalms 28:1
To You, O LORD, I call; be not deaf to me, O my Rock. For if You remain silent, I will be like those descending to the Pit.
- Psalms 35:22
O LORD, You have seen it; be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me.
- Psalms 28:1
Through
Zechariah 1:12Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”
it leads to
- Daniel 9:2
in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.
- Psalms 102:13
You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show her favor— the appointed time has come.
- Jeremiah 29:10
For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.
- Psalms 74:10
How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?
- Zechariah 7:5
“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
- Daniel 9:2
Through
Isaiah 42:14“I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant.
it leads to
- Luke 18:7
Will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He continue to defer their help?
- Luke 18:7
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies2
On this verse
On this chapter
About Isaiah
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 5:6.64:10-12; Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodoret of Cyrus, COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 20:64.9-10 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Isaiah.