What Does Isaiah 16:11 Mean?
Therefore my bowels will moan like a lyre for Moab, and my insides for Kir-hareseth.
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
Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh.THE KEY
The harp is not outside the grief: the speaker’s own inward parts are what sound for Moab.
THE MEANING
Grief for Moab reaches your deepest interior; it is not an idea held at arm’s length but a sound that moves through you. The harp gives that sorrow resonance, while Kir-haresh remains named and particular rather than blurred into a general ache.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that concern for another people must stay abstract dissolves: their suffering can sound inside you.
THE ROOT
יֶהֱמוּ
yehemu
GROWS FROM
המה
h-m-h
to murmur, roar, or make an inward commotion
“will moan” in this verse is yehemu. The verb translated “sound” can also describe murmuring or roaring. The verse makes grief resonate from within, so lament becomes audible rather than remaining a private thought.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: to murmur, roar, or make a tumult
הָמָה
This verb’s range holds both a low inner murmur and a forceful cry, giving the sorrow a sound with depth.
hamon: noise, tumult, or a great multitude
הָמוֹן
The related noun makes the inner sound something that can swell and fill the space around it.
קִרְבִּי
qirbi
GROWS FROM
קרב
q-r-b
to approach or come near
“insides” in this verse is qirbi. The word for inward parts belongs to the same root as words for nearness and drawing near. The sorrow for Moab is described as something close within, not distant sympathy.
ALSO GROWS
qarab: to approach or draw near
קָרַב
The root makes inwardness a kind of nearness: the grief has come close enough to be felt within.
qarov: near or close
קָרוֹב
This branch echoes the verse’s intimacy: the suffering named here is held close in the speaker’s inward life.
THE PATTERN
When compassion enters the inward parts, it finds a voice as sounding, groaning, or song.
Look down from heaven, and see from your set-apart dwelling and your adornment. Where is your zeal and your strength? The stirring of your inward parts and your compassions toward me, are they held back?Is Ephraim my weighty son? Is he a child to dandle? For whenever I speak against him, I surely remember him still. Therefore my innards moan for him, and I will surely have compassion on him, declares the LORD.For we know that the whole creation groans together and labors together in the pangs of birth until now.THE THREAD
Look down from heaven, and see from your set-apart dwelling and your adornment. Where is your zeal and your strength? The stirring of your inward parts and your compassions toward me, are they held back?This verse uses the same language of inward parts and sounding, making compassion resonate from within. Here the sound is for Moab; there it becomes a question about whether the LORD’s own compassion is restrained.
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