What Does Isaiah 21:14 Mean?
Those who settle in the land of Tema brought waters to meet the thirsty, and with bread they went forward to the fleeing wanderer.
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
The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled.THE KEY
The verse’s hidden verb says the bread goes out ahead to meet the fugitive.
THE MEANING
When you are displaced and thirsty, care can meet you before you can ask: water and bread arrive while you are still fleeing. Your need is met before your story is explained.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must first reach safety or prove you deserve help before anyone can meet your need.
THE ROOT
קִדְּמוּ
qiddemū
GROWS FROM
קדם
q-d-m
To come before, precede, or meet someone ahead of their arrival.
“went forward” in this verse is qiddemū. The KJV’s “prevented” carries the sense of coming before: they go out to meet the fugitive with bread. The root also names what is in front, so the verse’s welcome moves toward the one still in flight.
ALSO GROWS
qādam: To precede, meet, or anticipate.
קָדַם
This verb family makes the bread an arrival that meets the fugitive on the way.
qedem: The front or east; also former times.
קֶדֶם
Its sense of what lies in front echoes the welcome that comes forward to meet someone.
THE PATTERN
Welcome takes physical form by meeting hunger and thirst with food and water, even when the one in need is an enemy, stranger, or fugitive.
If the one who hates you hungers, feed him bread; and if he thirsts, give him water to drink.Is it not to break your bread for the hungry, and to bring the wandering poor into your house? When you see the naked, cover him, and do not hide yourself from your own flesh.For I hungered, and you gave me food; I thirsted, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in.THE THREAD
Let a little water be taken, please, and wash your feet, and lean yourselves under the tree.Here, water and rest meet travelers before they continue on. Isaiah’s bread reaches the fugitive in motion, showing welcome that moves toward the one in need.
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