What Does Isaiah 16:14 Mean?
But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as the years of a hired hand, the weight of Moab will be made light, with all that great crowd; and the remnant will be very few, and not strong."
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
But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.THE KEY
Moab’s weight has an end date: within a hireling’s measured three-year term, its “glory” becomes light.
THE MEANING
Moab’s public weight is shown as temporary: within three years, its great multitude is reduced to a tiny, weak remnant. The verse holds that loss in full view, showing that a people’s size and splendor do not make its standing durable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a great multitude proves lasting strength: Moab’s numbers and glory do not prevent its remnant from becoming small and feeble.
THE ROOT
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy, to carry weight.
Kavod (כָּבוֹד, “weight” or “honor”) makes Moab’s glory something with weight in the world. The verse then says it is contemned; the Hebrew verb carries the image of being made light, turning weight into its opposite.
ALSO GROWS
kāvēd: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This branch makes the force of “glory” concrete: Moab’s standing carries weight.
kibbēd: To honor, treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
Honor belongs to the same root as heaviness, linking public esteem with the weight a people carries.
נִקְלָה
niqlah
GROWS FROM
קלל
q-l-l
To be light or slight; in some forms, to treat as contemptible or curse.
“made light” in this verse is niqlah. The word translated “contemned” comes from a root whose basic image is lightness. Beside kavod (כָּבוֹד, “weight”), it reveals the verse’s reversal: what carried weight is reduced to something slight.
ALSO GROWS
qal: Light, slight.
קַל
This branch supplies the root-image behind Moab’s glory being brought into contempt.
qelalah: Curse, an expression of contempt.
קְלָלָה
This branch shows how the root can move from lightness to being treated with contempt.
שָׂכִיר
sākîr
GROWS FROM
שכר
s-k-r
To hire or engage for wages.
“hired hand” in this verse is sākîr. A sākîr (שָׂכִיר, “hired worker”) serves for an agreed term, giving the three years the feel of a measured limit. The comparison makes the announced decline feel precise, like time that cannot be stretched by Moab’s size.
ALSO GROWS
sākār: Wages, hire, or reward.
שָׂכָר
Wages mark the bounded term of the worker’s service, sharpening the verse’s time limit.
sākar: To hire or engage for wages.
שָׂכַר
The verb points to service set for an agreed period, echoing the verse’s measured three years.
THE PATTERN
Public honor and abundance cannot secure themselves against a measured decline.
And in that day, the weight of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fat of his flesh shall grow lean.Do not fear when a man grows rich, when the weight of his house swells. For in his dying he takes nothing, and his weight does not go down after him.But the rich one boasts in his being brought low, for like the flower of the grass he will pass by. For the sun rises with its scorching heat, and dries the grass, and its flower falls, and the beauty of its shape perishes; so also the rich one withers in his goings.THE THREAD
And in that day, the weight of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fat of his flesh shall grow lean.Both verses use kavod (כָּבוֹד, “weight”) for a people’s public standing: Moab’s is made light, while Jacob’s is made thin. The shared root makes decline physical, what seemed weighty can lose substance.
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