Limitless Word
¶Come, my people, enter your rooms And close your doors behind you; Hide for a little while Until indignation runs its course.
Isaiah 26:20 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
  • KJV Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
  • BSB Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed.
  • NKJV Come, my people, enter your chambers, And shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, Until the indignation is past.
  • NLT Go home, my people, and lock your doors! Hide yourselves for a little while until the Lord’s anger has passed.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God tenderly calls His people to take refuge until His wrath against sin has passed.

Overview

Like Israel sheltering during the Passover judgment, God's people are told to hide briefly until the indignation is over. This shows God's wrath falls on the guilty while He protects His own. It anticipates the gospel refuge found in Christ, in whom believers are safe from the judgment to come.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 24

  • Ps 30:5For his anger is but for a moment. His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
  • Ps 27:5For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the covert of his tabernacle he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock.
  • Isa 54:7–8“For a small moment I have forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you.
  • Matt 6:6But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
  • Ps 91:4He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart.
  • Prov 18:10Yahweh’s name is a strong tower: the righteous run to him, and are safe.
  • Ps 17:8Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings,
  • 2 Cor 4:17For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;
  • Ps 32:7You are my hiding place. You will preserve me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
  • Isa 10:25For yet a very little while, and the indignation against you will be accomplished, and my anger will be directed to his destruction.”
  • Isa 51:4“Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation: for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.
  • Ps 91:1He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
  • Exod 12:22–23You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
  • Ps 31:20In the shelter of your presence you will hide them from the plotting of man. You will keep them secretly in a dwelling away from the strife of tongues.
  • Ezek 11:16“Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come.”’
  • Isa 51:16I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
  • Ps 143:9Deliver me, Yahweh, from my enemies. I flee to you to hide me.
  • Isa 32:18–19My people will live in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
  • Ps 57:1For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A poem by David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave. Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in you. Yes, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge, until disaster has passed.
  • Gen 7:1Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
  • Jer 31:14I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yahweh.
  • Gen 7:16Those who went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God commanded him; then Yahweh shut him in.
  • Jer 7:23but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
  • Matt 23:37“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 26:20YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 26:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.