For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.
Parallel translations
- WEB Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
- KJV The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
- NKJV Your holy people have possessed it but a little while; Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary.
- NASB Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while, Our adversaries have trampled it down.
- NLT How briefly your holy people possessed your holy place, and now our enemies have destroyed it.
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 lament that they held the sanctuary only briefly before enemies trampled it down. It matters because it gives voice to grief over devastation and loss.
Overview
The prayer mourns the destruction of God's sanctuary, likely reflecting the Babylonian destruction of the temple foreseen by the prophet. The brevity of their possession heightens the sorrow. This honest grief over a ruined place of worship anticipates the longing for God's true and lasting temple, ultimately fulfilled in Christ and in the dwelling of God with His people (John 2:19-21; Revelation 21:3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 74:3–7Turn Your steps to the everlasting ruins, to everything in the sanctuary the enemy has destroyed.
- Dan 8:24His power will be great, but it will not be his own. He will cause terrible destruction and succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men along with the holy people.
- 1 Pet 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.
- Lam 4:1How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner.
- Deut 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 the earth.
- Exod 19:4–6‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.
- Rev 11:2But exclude the courtyard outside the temple. Do not measure it, because it has been given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for 42 months.
- Matt 24:2“Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
- Deut 26:19that He will set you high in praise and name and honor above all the nations He has made, and that you will be a holy people to the LORD your God, as He has promised.
- Lam 1:10The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.
- Isa 64:11–12Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.
- Isa 62:12And they will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of The LORD; and you will be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 63:18 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.