What Does Isaiah 10:31 Mean?
Madmenah drifted away; the dwellers of Gebim gathered their strength to flee.
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
Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.THE KEY
Hebrew calls Gebim’s people “dwellers” even as the verse shows their bond to place breaking into flight.
THE MEANING
Madmenah (מַדְמֵנָה, madmenah; often glossed “dunghill”) and Gebim (גֵּבִים, gebim; “cisterns” or “pits”) keep the scene anchored in named, physical places. The Hebrew calls Gebim’s people dwellers just as they prepare to flee. One settlement is already displaced, and another is about to empty. The verse speaks now to the moment danger breaks the bond between people and home.
THE ROOT
יֹשְׁבֵי
yōšəḇê
GROWS FROM
ישב
yashav
To sit, settle, or dwell.
“dwellers” in this verse is yōšəḇê. The word for “inhabitants” comes from the root for sitting and settling. The verse names the people by their rooted relation to place even as it shows that settled life giving way to flight.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit, dwell, or settle.
יָשַׁב
This verb is the seed inside “inhabitants”: these are people whose identity is tied to dwelling there.
moshav: Dwelling, settlement, or place of residence.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch names the settled place that the dwellers are now preparing to leave.
נָדְדָה
naddədāh
GROWS FROM
נדד
nadad
To wander, move away, or flee.
“drifted away” in this verse is naddədāh. The Hebrew verb carries the force of flight beneath the KJV’s “is removed.” With Madmenah as its subject, the verse presents displacement as a whole settlement emptying, not merely individuals changing their minds.
ALSO GROWS
nedudim: Tossings or restless wanderings.
נְדֻדִים
Job 7:4 uses this noun for restless movement through the night; the same root can describe inner restlessness as well as outward flight.
naddədū: They fled.
נָדְדוּ
Isaiah 21:15 uses this form for people fleeing swords, showing the root’s force when danger drives people from their place.
לָנוּס
lānūs
GROWS FROM
נוס
nūs
To flee or escape.
“to flee” in this verse is lānūs. The verse moves from Madmenah’s flight to a second Hebrew root for escape. A noun from this root can name refuge itself, joining the act of fleeing with the place one seeks to reach.
ALSO GROWS
vayyānās: And he fled.
וַיָּנָס
Genesis 39:12 uses this form for Joseph’s escape, making the same root a direct action of getting away.
mānōs: Refuge or escape.
מָנוֹס
Psalm 142:4 uses this noun for refuge; the root joins flight with the shelter sought through flight.
THE PATTERN
When danger makes a place unsafe, its inhabitants move toward hiding or escape, and flight can become collective.
When the men of Israel saw that they were in a narrow place, for the people were pressed, then the people hid themselves in caves, and in the thorns, and in the rocks, and in the high places, and in the pits.Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains.And as the sailors sought to flee out of the ship, and had let down the boat into the sea, under cover of stretching out anchors from the bow.THE THREAD
For from the face of the swords they fled, from the drawn-out sword, from the bent bow, and from the face of the weight of war.Isaiah 21:15 uses נָדְדוּ (naddədū, “they fled”), from נדד (nadad, “wander or flee”), the same root behind Madmenah being “removed” here. In this verse, a second root, נוס (nūs, “flee”), carries the movement onward to Gebim’s residents.
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