What Does Isaiah 17:14 Mean?
And behold, at evening, terror; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of those who strip us, and the lot of those who plunder us.
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
And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.THE KEY
The plunderer’s allotted portion is not lasting power, but disappearance before morning.
THE MEANING
At evening, trouble seems to fill the night; before morning, it is gone. The one who preys on you does not hold a permanent claim: the verse names disappearance as the plunderer’s portion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that the harm before you must last, or that the one taking from you owns your future.
THE ROOT
חֵלֶק
ḥēleq
GROWS FROM
חלק
ḥ-l-q
To divide or apportion; a share is what is allotted from a whole.
The verse calls the plunderers’ end their allotted share. Their power looks like something they possess, but the word for “portion” makes their disappearance the share assigned to them.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēleq: A share, portion, or allotted part.
חֵלֶק
This is the word in Isaiah: the plunderers receive a portion, and it is their end.
meḥullāq: Divided or distributed.
מְחֻלָּק
The related form makes the idea of an allotted share visible: what is divided out is not limitless or permanent.
בַלָּהָה
ballāhāh terror or
GROWS FROM
בהל
b-h-l
To be alarmed, dismayed, or thrown into haste.
The trouble named here carries the sense of alarm and dismay. The verse places that terror at evening, then sets its disappearance before morning, so the night’s alarm does not become a lasting verdict.
ALSO GROWS
behalah: Alarm, panic, or sudden terror.
בְּהָלָה
It shares the alarm-language behind the evening trouble in the verse.
nibhal: To be dismayed or alarmed.
נִבְהַל
This verb shows the root as an experience of being thrown into fear, not a condition that must endure.
שֹׁסֵינוּ
shōsēnū our plunderers
GROWS FROM
שסה
sh-s-h
To plunder or despoil.
“strip” in this verse is shōsēnū our plunderers. The verse names the attackers by what they do: they take and despoil. Yet the same sentence declares that their own allotted share is an end, not a permanent right to keep taking.
ALSO GROWS
shāsāh: To plunder or rob.
שָׁסָה
This is the action that defines the “spoilers” in the verse.
shāsūy: Prey or something plundered.
שָׁסוּי
The related form names what plunder leaves behind, sharpening the verse’s reversal: the takers themselves do not remain in control.
THE PATTERN
Those who prey on others may seem powerful, but their allotted share can end suddenly.
Yet a little while, and the wicked will not be. You will look closely at his place, and he will not be.For there is no latter end for the evil man, and the lamp of the wicked goes out.Standing far off for the fear of her scourging, saying, Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.THE THREAD
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.Isaiah and this verse use the same Hebrew word, חֵלֶק (ḥēleq), for “portion.” Isaiah names the plunderers’ portion as their end; here the speaker’s portion is the LORD, who maintains it.
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