Isaiah 26:16 (DRB)

Passage

Lord, they have sought after thee in distress, in the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 26:14 Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore hast visited and destroyed them, and hast destroyed all their memory.

Isaiah 26:15 Thou hast been favourable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favourable to the nation: art thou glorified? thou hast removed all the ends of the earth far off.

Isaiah 26:16 Lord, they have sought after thee in distress, in the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them.

Isaiah 26:17 As a woman with child, when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs: so are we become in thy presence, O Lord.

Isaiah 26:18 We have conceived, and been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "lord", "sought", "after", "thee", "distress", "tribulation", "murmuring", and "instruction". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "lord" and "sought", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 15's "Thou hast been favourable to the nation..." into verse 17's "As a woman with child when she...", so "lord" and "sought" 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 "lord" and "sought" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.