Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while, Our adversaries have trampled it down.
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.
- BSB For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.
- NKJV Your holy people have possessed it but a little while; Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary.
- 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 74:3–7Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
- Dan 8:24His power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper in what he does; and he shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people.
- 1 Pet 2:9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
- Lam 4:1How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
- Deut 7:6For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.
- Exod 19:4–6‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself.
- Rev 11:2Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.
- Matt 24:2But he answered them, “You see all of these things, don’t you? Most certainly I tell you, there will not be left here one stone on another, that will not be thrown down.”
- Deut 26:19He will make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken.
- Lam 1:10The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things: for she has seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
- Isa 64:11–12Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant places are laid waste.
- Isa 62:12They will call them The holy people, Yahweh’s redeemed. You will be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 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.