What Does Isaiah 16:13 Mean?
This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning Moab from of old.
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
This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab since that time.THE KEY
The Hebrew names both the “word” and the act of speaking with one root: this word is speech made definite.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word concerning Moab stands before you as a definite utterance, already spoken and still named here. The declaration stays attached to its specific subject rather than dissolving into a general idea. Moab’s name carries the sense “from father,” as Genesis links the name to its naming.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
haddābār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak or declare; as a noun, a spoken matter or word.
The verse says “the word ... spoken” with a noun and verb from the same ד־ב־ר root, tying the message to the act of utterance. English makes them sound like separate descriptions; Hebrew echoes one seed, a declared matter is speech taking definite form.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: A word or matter.
דָּבָר
This is the noun Isaiah uses for the LORD’s declaration concerning Moab.
dibbēr: To speak or declare.
דִּבֶּר
This is the verb describing what the LORD did, echoing the noun for “word.”
THE PATTERN
When the LORD speaks, the word remains consequential beyond the moment it is spoken.
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should relent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not make it stand?So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Heaven and earth pass by, but my words do not pass by.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Isaiah 16:13 calls the declaration a dābār and says the LORD dibbēr it, both from ד־ב־ר. Isaiah 55:11 uses the same noun for a word that goes forth and accomplishes its purpose, opening this terse notice into a picture of speech that carries its purpose forward.
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