What Does Isaiah 1:26 Mean?
I will return your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of alignment, the steady city.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.THE KEY
The city receives its name of faithfulness as its judgment and counsel return to order, its identity grows from what guides it.
THE MEANING
Right judgment and sound counsel are being restored to their original place in you. As discernment and guidance return, your life bears the name of alignment and steadiness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that failed judgment means a city can never again be faithful is undone: the verse holds restoration open.
THE ROOT
וְאָשִׁיבָה
ve'ashivah
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
to turn back, return
The verb for restoration grows from the seed of returning: repair is a return to sound order. The city’s wholeness is uncovered as its judges and counselors return to their first place.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: to turn or return
שׁוּב
This is the root itself, showing that restoration carries the sense of a return.
teshuvah: turning, return
תְּשׁוּבָה
This branch makes the turning within restoration visible: what is restored comes back toward its proper place.
צֶדֶק
tsedeq
GROWS FROM
צדק
alignment, right order
The city’s name carries the sense of alignment with what is right. That name follows the restoration of judgment and counsel, so righteousness here describes a shared order taking shape, not merely a private virtue.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: one who is upright or aligned
צַדִּיק
The branch describes a person whose life is in line with what is right, echoing the city’s restored order.
tsedaqah: justice, righteousness
צְדָקָה
This branch connects alignment with justice expressed in the life of a community.
נֶאֱמָנָה
ne'emanah
GROWS FROM
אמן
firm, steady, reliable
The word translated “faithful” grows from firmness: what is steady enough to be relied on. The city’s character is therefore not only upright but dependable, a place whose restored order can be leaned on.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: trust, steadiness
אֱמוּנָה
This branch shows trust as something grounded in what holds firm, illuminating the city’s reliability.
amen: Amen; an affirmation of what is firm
אָמֵן
This familiar affirmation belongs to the same root family, echoing the firmness named in the city’s identity.
THE PATTERN
A community’s character becomes visible through the quality of its judgment and counsel.
Behold, a king will reign in alignment, and the princes will straighten in judgment.Where no steering is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is deliverance.Now, brothers, look out among you seven men of good witness, full of the Set-Apart Breath and wisdom, whom we may set over this need.THE THREAD
From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes, and you have not guarded them. Turn back to me, and I will turn to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, How shall we turn back?Both verses turn on שׁוּב (shuv, “return”): restoration is a movement back toward what has gone out of order. Malachi makes that return explicit, while Isaiah shows it taking shape in restored judgment and counsel.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us