We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.
Parallel translations
- WEB We have become like those over whom you never ruled, like those who were not called by your name.
- BSB We have become like those You never ruled, like those not called by Your name.
- NKJV We have become like those of old, over whom You never ruled, Those who were never called by Your name.
- NASB We have become like those over whom You have never ruled, Like those who were not called by Your name.
- NLT Sometimes it seems as though we never belonged to you, as though we had never been known as your people.
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 feel they have become like those never ruled by God or called by His name. It matters because it expresses the anguish of seeming abandonment.
Overview
In their devastation the people feel cut off, as though they were no different from nations that never knew God. This intensifies the plea for God to act and reclaim them as His own. The lament prepares for the urgent cry of chapter 64 and reflects the deep human longing for God's saving presence, a longing answered in Christ, who gathers a people for God's name (Acts 15:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 135:4For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.
- Acts 14:16Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
- Rom 9:4Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
- Acts 15:17That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
- Isa 65:1I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.
- Amos 9:12That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.
- Ps 79:6Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.
- Eph 2:12That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
- Jer 10:25Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.
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 63:19 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
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