What Does Isaiah 13:6 Mean?
Howl, for the day of the LORD is near; it will come as a ravaging from the Almighty.
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
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.THE KEY
The Hebrew places שֹׁד (shod, “devastation”) beside שַׁדַּי (Shaddai, “the Almighty”), making the calamity echo the name of the power from which it comes.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you with a cry: howl, because the LORD’s day is near. Its arrival is devastation from the Almighty, a force that lays waste to what stands in its path.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the Almighty’s nearness always feels like shelter; here, that nearness arrives as devastation.
THE ROOT
שֹׁד
shod
GROWS FROM
שדד
sh-d-d
To devastate or despoil.
“ravaging” in this verse is shod. The KJV’s “destruction” is שֹׁד (shod, “devastation”), from the root שדד (shadad, “to devastate”). Beside it stands שַׁדַּי (Shaddai, “the Almighty”): the close sound makes the source and force ring together, though the title’s etymology is debated.
ALSO GROWS
shadad: To lay waste or despoil.
שָׁדַד
This is the verbal root behind שֹׁד (shod, “devastation”), giving the verse’s “destruction” an active force.
Shaddai: A title for God, traditionally rendered “the Almighty.”
שַׁדַּי
Its sound closely echoes שֹׁד (shod, “devastation”) in this verse, creating a pointed wordplay without settling the title’s disputed origin.
קָרוֹב
qarov
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
To approach or come near.
The day is described as קרוב (qarov, “near”), from the root קרב (qarav, “to approach”). Hebrew’s word for nearness belongs to the same root family as קָרְבָּן (korban, “drawing near”), so the day is not remote: it is approaching.
ALSO GROWS
qarav: To come close or approach.
קָרַב
It makes “at hand” carry the motion of an approaching day.
korban: An approach or drawing near.
קָרְבָּן
This branch makes the shared root’s sense of nearness concrete: what is near is coming into contact.
THE PATTERN
The day of the LORD approaches as a force that strips away claims of safety and permanence.
Ah, the day! For the day of the LORD draws near, and like a ravaging from the Almighty it will come.Drawing near is the great day of the LORD, near and hastening greatly. The sound of the day of the LORD is bitter, and the strong man shrieks there.When they say, "Wholeness and firm footing," then sudden ruin stands over them, like labor pains upon a woman carrying a child in her womb, and they will not escape.THE THREAD
Ah, the day! For the day of the LORD draws near, and like a ravaging from the Almighty it will come.Joel repeats שֹׁד (shod, “devastation”) and מִשַּׁדַּי (mish-Shaddai, “from the Almighty”), the same sound-pair heard in Isaiah. That echo makes Isaiah’s howl ring as a response to devastation arriving from the power named beside it.
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