Sometimes it seems as though we never belonged to you, as though we had never been known as your people.
Parallel translations
- WEB We have become like those over whom you never ruled, like those who were not called by your name.
- KJV We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy 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.
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 Yah has chosen Jacob for himself; Israel for his own possession.
- Acts 14:16who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.
- Rom 9:4who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;
- Acts 15:17That the rest of men may seek after the Lord; all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does all these things.
- Isa 65:1“I am inquired of by those who didn’t ask. I am found by those who didn’t seek me. I said, ‘See me, see me,’ to a nation that was not called by my name.
- Amos 9:12that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations who are called by my name,” says Yahweh who does this.
- Ps 79:6Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you; on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name;
- Eph 2:12that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
- Jer 10:25Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob. Yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
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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