Isaiah 26: 'Bring evils upon them, O Lord'

[Theron Mathis]

This phrase occurs several places in Scripture, but specifically in Isaiah 26. It is from Isaiah 26 (ode 5) that we pull this phrase and use it multiple times during our Lenten services.

What do we mean by this?

[Theron Mathis]

Here's some of my thoughts on this. Bring more evils refers to afflictions, trials, sufferings to cleanse, train and purify us in holiness. We are not praying for God to bring evils upon everyone else, but to afflict us so that we may be purged from sin.

[Nina]

Someone asked me, "Isn't the hymn we chant during the Great Lent, Bring more evils upon them, O Lord, bring more evils upon those who are glorious upon the earth [Is 26:15] a curse? And if it is, why do we still chant it? "

"When the barbarians are attacking," I replied, "and are ready to destroy a people just like that, and the people are praying that their enemies encounter obstacles, that their chariots break down and their horses get harmed, is that good or bad? That's what it means: that they may run into obstacles. It's not a curse." p.105

With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man: spiritual counsels from Elder Paisios of Mount Athos

[Theron Mathis]

Nina,

That's wonderful. It ties in well with some other things I have been reading. When praying this way for enemies, the prideful, the powerful, etc., we are not praying for their destruction but their salvation. May God bring them afflictions so that they may come into relationship with Him. Or in the case above, God thwart their evil purposes for us, but save them.

[Fr Raphael Vereshack]

"Bring more evils upon them O Lord... " is actually one of the verses chanted by the priest or deacon in between the Alleluia on the tone of the week.

This comes immediately after the Great Litany during Matins on weekdays of Great Lent.

Such Lenten services however were not originally Lenten. They are the way in which services at one time were done before their present daily form. As this form was displaced for what we use now the old form was retained for Lenten services only. In other words in a sense the immovable parts of such services are not actually Lenten although we now interpret them as such.

In Christ- Fr Raphael