Isaiah 63:18

"O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance."

Key Reflection

Isaiah 63:18 reflects the cries of God's people in exile, expressing their frustration and questioning why they are wandering from God’s ways and losing their fear of Him. In this context, the original audience would have understood that these were not expressions of unbelief or outright rebellion but rather heartfelt pleas for restoration, recognizing their situation as a direct result of divine judgment and longing for God's intervention to bring them back into covenant relationship with Him, especially considering they are His chosen people (the tribes of His inheritance).

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

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.

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