Lord, why have you allowed us to turn from your path? Why have you given us stubborn hearts so we no longer fear you? Return and help us, for we are your servants, the tribes that are your special possession.
Parallel translations
- WEB O Yahweh, 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.
- KJV O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
- BSB Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.
- NKJV O Lord, why have You made us stray from Your ways, And hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants’ sake, The tribes of Your inheritance.
- NASB Why, Lord, do You cause us to stray from Your ways And harden our heart from fearing You? Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.
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
The people ask why God has let them wander and harden, pleading for Him to return for His servants' sake. It matters because it wrestles honestly with sin, judgment, and God's sovereignty.
Overview
This difficult prayer acknowledges that the people's straying and hardness fall under God's sovereign hand, likely as judicial response to their persistent sin (compare Romans 1:24-28). Faithful Christians have understood it not as God authoring evil but as His righteous giving-over of rebels to their chosen ways, while the cry 'Return' shows hope still rests in His mercy. The plea appeals to grace, asking God to act for His servants' sake.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Isa 6:10Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”
- Josh 11:20For it was of Yahweh to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Ezek 14:7–9“‘“For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from me, and takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I Yahweh will answer him by myself.
- Deut 2:30But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for Yahweh your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate, that he might deliver him into your hand, as it is today.
- Isa 29:13The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;
- Ps 90:13Relent, Yahweh! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
- Num 10:36When it rested, he said, “Return, Yahweh, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.”
- John 12:40“He has blinded their eyes and he hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and would turn, and I would heal them.”
- Rom 9:18–20So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
- Zech 1:12Then Yahweh’s angel replied, “O Yahweh of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?”
- 2 Th 2:11–12Because of this, God sends them a working of error, that they should believe a lie;
- Ps 119:36Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.
- Ps 119:10With my whole heart, I have sought you. Don’t let me wander from your commandments.
- Ps 80:14Turn again, we beg you, God of Armies. Look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vine,
- Ps 74:1–2A contemplation by Asaph. God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
- Ps 141:4Don’t incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity. Don’t let me eat of their delicacies.
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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 63:17 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.