Isaiah 26:20
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you: hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be over.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Come, my people, into your secret places, and let your doors be shut: keep yourself safe for a short time, till his wrath is over.
Webster's Revision
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation shall be overpast.
World English Bible
Come, my people, enter into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
Definitions for Isaiah 26:20
Clarke's Isaiah 26:20 Bible Commentary
Comes my people, enter thou into thy chambers - An exhortation to patience and resignation under oppression, with a confident expectation of deliverance by the power of God manifestly to be exerted in the destruction of the oppressor. It seems to be an allusion to the command of Moses to the Israelites, when the destroying angel was to go through the land of Egypt, "not to go out at the door of their houses until the morning;" Exodus 12:22. And before the passage of the Red Sea: "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah. Jehovah shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace, "Exo 14:13, Exodus 14:14.
Barnes's Isaiah 26:20 Bible Commentary
Come, my people - This is an epilogue (Rosenmuller), in which the choir addresses the people, and entreats them to be tranquil during that convulsion by which their oppressors would be punished, and the way made for their deliverance. The image is taken from seeking a shelter when a storm rages, until its fury is spent. The address is to the captive Jews in Babylon. The tempest that would rage would be the wars and commotions by which Babylon was to be overthrown. While that storm raged, they were exhorted to be calm and serene.
Enter thou into thy chambers - Into places of retirement, where the storm of indignation on your enemies shall not reach or affect you.
Hide thyself as it were ... - Do not mingle in the scenes of battle, lest you should partake of the general calamity.
For a little moment - Implying that the war would not rage long. Babylon was taken in a single night (see the notes at Isaiah 13; 14), and the call here is for the people of God to be calm while this battle should rage in which the city should be taken.
Until the indignation ... - Not, as Lowth supposes, the indignation of God against his people, but the storm of his indignation against their enemies the Babylonians. That would be soon 'overpast,' the city would be taken, the storms of war would cease to rage, and then they would be delivered, and might safely return to their own land.
Wesley's Isaiah 26:20 Bible Commentary
26:20 Shut thy doors - Withdraw thyself from the world, and pour out thy prayers to God in thy closet. Indignation - The dreadful effects of God's anger, mentioned in the following verse.