Isaiah 26:16 (DBY)

Passage

Jehovah, in trouble they sought thee; they poured out [their] whispered prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 26:14 [They are] dead, they shall not live; deceased, they shall not rise: for thou hast visited and destroyed them, and made all memory of them to perish.

Isaiah 26:15 Thou hast increased the nation, Jehovah, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified. Thou hadst removed [it] far [unto] all the ends of the earth.

Isaiah 26:16 Jehovah, in trouble they sought thee; they poured out [their] whispered prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

Isaiah 26:17 As a woman with child, that draweth near her delivery, is in travail, [and] crieth out in her pangs; so have we been before thee, Jehovah.

Isaiah 26:18 We have been with child, we have been in travail, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought the deliverance of the land, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "jehovah", "trouble", "sought", "thee", "poured", "whispered", "prayer", and "chastening". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "jehovah" and "trouble", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "Thou hast increased the nation Jehovah thou..." into verse 17's "As a woman with child that draweth...", so "jehovah" and "trouble" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "jehovah" and "trouble" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.