Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee: According to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to death;

let the sighing of the prisoners come in before thee. According to the greatness of thy arm, take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.

Let the groaning of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thine arm, preserve those that are appointed to die;

Let the groaning of the prisoner come in before Thee, According to the greatness of Thine arm, Leave Thou the sons of death.

Let the cry of the prisoner come before you; with your strong arm make free the children of death;

Let the groaning of the prisoner come before Thee; According to the greatness of Thy power set free those that are appointed to death;

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, free those who are sentenced to death.

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee. The people of God, I have no doubt, were in captivity when the Holy Spirit endited this prayer; and, therefore, the name of prisoners is applied to them all in general, because they were so shut up within the bounds of Assyria and Chaldea, that had they stirred one foot thence, they would have incurred the penalty of death. They are called the children of death; by which is meant, that they were appointed or condemned to death in respect of their captivity. This sentence, however, may not improperly be restricted to a small number who were shut up in prison under closer restraint. By this expression, it is intimated that those proud spirits who had before vaunted themselves against God, were now broken and effectually humbled. The greatness of God's arm, that is to say, the greatness of his power, is implored; for without a signal and extraordinary interposition on his part, no hope could be entertained of the restoration of the Church.

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee - The sighing of him who is bound. The allusion here is, doubtless, to those among the Hebrews who had been taken captives, and who "sighed" not only on account of the sufferings which they endured in their bondage, but because they had been taken from their country and home. The meaning is, "Hear those sighs, and come for the deliverance of those who are thus held in captivity."
According to the greatness of thy power - Margin, as in Hebrew, thine arm. The arm is the symbol of power. It is implied here that great power was needful to deliver those who were held in captivity, power such as God only could exert - power which could be wielded only by an Omnipotent Being. It was the power of God only which could rescue them, as it is only by the power of God that sinners can be saved.
Preserve thou those that are appointed to die - Margin, Reserve the children of death. The literal meaning is, "Let remain the sons of death;" that is, Preserve those who are in such circumstances that death is impending, and who may be called the sons of death. This might apply to those who were condemned to death; or, to those who were sick and in danger of death; or to those who were prisoners and captives, and who were, by their sufferings, exposed to death. The prayer is that such might be suffered to remain on the earth; that is, that they might be kept alive.

The sighing of the prisoner - The poor captive Israelites in Babylon, who sigh and cry because of their bondage.
Those that are appointed to die - בני תמותה beney themuthah, "sons of death." Either those who were condemned to death because of their crimes, or condemned to be destroyed by their oppressors. Both these senses apply to the Israelites: they were sons of death, i.e., worthy of death because of their sins against God; they were condemned to death or utter destruction, by their Babylonish enemies.

Let the sighing of the (i) prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou (k) those that are appointed to die;
(i) Who though in respect to God they were justly punished for their sins, yet in consideration of their cause were unjustly murdered.
(k) Who were captives among their enemies and could look for nothing but death.

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee,.... Such as were so in a literal or spiritual sense; and the sighs and groans of such are not hid from the Lord; they come up into his ears as did the sighing and groaning of the children of Israel when in Egypt, Exodus 2:23,
according to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die; not by the Lord, as all men are, but by men; who are under a sentence of condemnation, who are ready to die, being appointed to destruction, Proverbs 31:6, or are in danger of death, as Jarchi observes; the phrase is used in Talmudic writings; whose lives are exposed to danger, who are killed all the day long, and are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, Psalm 44:22, these it is desired the Lord would keep from dying, or cause them to remain in life; or not suffer their lives to be taken away from them, which he was able to do through "the greatness of his power"; though these words according to the accents belong to the preceding clause. The Targum, and so Jarchi, and other Jewish writers, render the words, "loose thou those", &c. mention being made before of prisoners, or of persons bound.

prisoner--the whole captive people.
power--literally, "arm" (Psalm 10:15).

The prisoner - Of thy poor people now in captivity.