What Does Isaiah 13:2 Mean?
Lift a banner on the bare hill; lift your voice to them; wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the openhanded ones.
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
Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.THE KEY
Banner, voice, and waved hand form one escalating signal that turns visibility into a force moving toward the gates.
THE MEANING
A raised signal, a loud call, and a waved hand coordinate movement toward the gates of the powerful. The summons carries force: its aim is entry through a guarded threshold.
THE ROOT
נֵס
nēs
GROWS FROM
נסס
To raise or display conspicuously as a signal.
The banner is a raised signal meant to be seen, not merely a symbol carried along. Its visibility begins the chain of voice, gesture, and movement toward the gates.
ALSO GROWS
nāsas: To raise as a signal; make conspicuous.
נָסַס
This verbal root shows the banner’s function: it stands out where others can see and respond.
lehitnoses: To be displayed or raised as a signal.
לְהִתְנוֹסֵס
Psalm 60:4 uses this form for a banner being displayed, echoing the public signal in this verse.
הָנִיפוּ
hānîp̄û
GROWS FROM
נוף
To move to and fro; wave or brandish.
“wave the hand” in this verse is hānîp̄û. The Hebrew verb describes a directed wave of the hand, a signal others can read. The gesture joins the banner and raised voice as part of the summons.
ALSO GROWS
hēnîph: To wave, lift, or brandish.
הֵנִיף
This is the same verb family as the hand gesture here, making the movement purposeful rather than incidental.
tenuphah: A waving or wave offering.
תְּנוּפָה
The shared root carries the sense of a visible, deliberate presentation, illuminating the hand as a public signal.
פִּתְחֵי
pitḥê
GROWS FROM
פתח
To open; an opening or entrance.
The Hebrew word for these gates is tied to opening and entrance. The summons has a precise destination: a threshold that controls access to the nobles’ domain.
ALSO GROWS
pātaḥ: To open or make accessible.
פָּתַח
The root makes the gate an opening into a domain, not just a structure in the landscape.
maphtēaḥ: A key; that which opens.
מַפְתֵּחַ
This branch shares the root of the entrance and highlights the question of access at the center of the verse.
THE PATTERN
A sign raised into public view gathers or directs a response toward it.
You have given a lifted banner to those in awe of you, to be unfurled before the face of truth. Selah.And the LORD said to Moses, Make for yourself a burning serpent, and set it upon a pole. And it shall be, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live.And I, if I am lifted up from the ground, will draw all humankind to myself.THE THREAD
And he will lift a banner for the nations, and gather in the driven ones of Israel, and gather the scattered of Judah from the four wings of the earth.Isaiah 11 uses the same Hebrew word נֵס (nēs, banner or ensign) and directly pairs the raised signal with gathering the scattered. Here the signal becomes voice and hand movement, directing a force toward the nobles’ gates.
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