Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 26:16

"Jehovah, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer [when] thy chastening was upon them." — Isaiah 26:16 (ASV)

Lord, in trouble have they visited thee. —Better, have they missed you (as in 1 Samuel 20:6; 1 Samuel 25:15), or sought after you, or, remembered you.

They poured out a prayer ... —The word for “prayer” is a peculiar one, commonly used, as in Isaiah 3:3; Isaiah 8:19, for the whispered incantations of the heathen. Here it appears to mean the low-toned prayers, pitched as in a minor key, of the afflicted. In Isaiah 29:4 we have the same thought more fully developed.