Isaiah 33:2

2 O LORD, have mercy on us; we wait for thee: thou wert the strength of thy people in the beginning, be also our saving health in the time of tribulation.

Isaiah 33:2 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 33:2

O Lord, be gracious unto us
This is a prayer of the church under the persecutions of antichrist, imploring the grace and favour of God in their miserable and distressed circumstances; desiring his gracious help, assistance, and deliverance; pleading not any merits of their own, but casting themselves upon the mercy and kindness of God: we have waited for thee;
time after time, year after year, in the use of means; hoping for the manifestations of thyself, and kind appearance for us; expecting help and salvation, and still continue to wait, believing the time will come when favour will be shown: be thou their arm every morning;
when they pray unto thee, the morning being the time of prayer; and also be their arm all the day long, to lean and depend upon, to support, protect, and defend them; there is a change of person from the first to the third, usual in prophetic and poetic writings: some take them to be the words of the Old Testament church, praying for the New Testament church; and others a prayer of the church for her children and members. The Vulgate Latin version renders it, "our arm"; and the Syriac version, "our helper"; and the Targum,

``our strength:''

some read the words in connection with the following clause, thus, "be thou", who wast "their arm every morning", referring to their forefathers, whose strength and support the Lord was, our salvation also in the time of trouble
^F19; the deliverer of us from the antichristian yoke of bondage, from all his persecutions and oppressions, from the last struggle of the beast, from that hour of trouble and temptation that shall come upon all the earth.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 So some in De Dieu.

Isaiah 33:2 In-Context

1 Woe to thee that dost spoil, and thou wast not spoiled; and dost deal treacherously, and they did not deal treacherously with thee! When thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to dealing treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.

2 O LORD, have mercy on us; we wait for thee: thou wert the strength of thy people in the beginning, be also our saving health in the time of tribulation.

3 At the noise of the tumult the peoples fled; at the lifting up of thyself the Gentiles were scattered.

4 And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.

5 The LORD shall be exalted; he who dwells on the heights: for he has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.