Bible Strands
Isaiah 34:17
He has allotted their portion; His hand has distributed it by measure. They will possess it forever; they will dwell in it from generation to generation.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Isaiah addresses the nations under divine judgment, describing God's sovereign allocation of their desolate inheritance immediately after the scroll of the Lord is read and its contents verified.
The words — The text emphasizes גּוֹרָל (goral, "a lot") and קָו (qav, "measuring-line") to depict God casting and distributing their portion with exact, unyielding authority.
The thread — This pattern of fixed divine allotment appears in Isaiah 34:10's account of perpetual desolation, Acts 17:26's declaration of determined boundaries for nations, and Joshua 18:8's command to survey and map land inheritance.
Why it lands — The passage demands the reader acknowledge that God's judgment and territorial distribution are final and irrevocable, requiring submission to His sovereign ordering rather than human claims to destiny or land.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 34:10 It will not be quenched—day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it.
- Acts 17:26 From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.
- Joshua 18:8 As the men got up to go out, Joshua commanded them to map out the land, saying, “Go and survey the land, map it out, and return to me. Then I will cast lots for you here in Shiloh in the presence of the LORD.”
- Psalms 78:55 He drove out nations before them and apportioned their inheritance; He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
- Isaiah 13:20 She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there.
- Isaiah 17:14 In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.
- Jeremiah 13:25 This is your lot, the portion I have measured to you,” declares the LORD, “because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood.
- Acts 13:19 And having vanquished seven nations in Canaan, He gave their land to His people as an inheritance.