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