What Does Isaiah 21:17 Mean?
And the remnant of the count of the bowmen, the strong men of the children of Kedar, shall shrink, for the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken it.
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 the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it.THE KEY
Even the remnant of the mighty becomes few when the LORD’s spoken word sets the limit.
THE MEANING
This verse holds a stark limit: the bowmen are called mighty, yet their remaining number becomes few. The stated cause is the word spoken by the LORD God of Israel. The verse gives that reduction its full weight.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that might or survival guarantees that a group’s numbers will hold; even the remnant is subject to the limit spoken here.
THE ROOT
יִמְעָטוּ
yimʿatu
GROWS FROM
מ־ע־ט
m-ʿ-ṭ
To be few or small; to lessen or diminish.
“shrink” in this verse is yimʿatu. The Hebrew verb means becoming few, making the reduction a matter of number rather than a vague loss. It answers “residue” precisely: what remains is itself reduced in count.
ALSO GROWS
meʿat: A little; few.
מְעַט
This form makes the verse’s numerical reduction plain: the remainder becomes few.
himʿit: To make few; to reduce.
הִמְעִיט
This causative form shows the same root describing an action that reduces a number.
שְׁאָר
sheʾar
GROWS FROM
ש־א־ר
sh-ʾ-r
To remain or be left over.
“remnant” in this verse is sheʾar. The line begins with what survives, then says even that surviving group becomes few. “Residue” names a remainder, not a guarantee that the remainder stays large.
ALSO GROWS
sheʾerit: Remnant; what is left.
שְׁאֵרִית
This noun from the same root makes the verse’s focus on what remains visible.
shaʾar: To remain; to be left over.
שָׁאַר
The verb exposes the root idea beneath “residue”: continuing as what is left.
דִּבֵּר
dibber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; as a noun, a word or matter.
“has spoken it” in this verse is dibber. The related noun דָּבָר (davar) can mean both “word” and “matter.” The closing clause places the reduced number under what the LORD has spoken, joining utterance to the matter at hand.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter or thing.
דָּבָר
The noun shows how the same root can name speech and the matter being spoken of.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֶּר
This verb is the form used in the verse’s final clause: the LORD has spoken.
THE PATTERN
What God speaks comes to pass and establishes what endures.
For he says, and it comes to be; he commands, and it stands.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 will pass by, but my words will not pass by.THE THREAD
It shall be the lowest of the kingdoms, neither shall it lift itself any more above the nations, for I will shrink them, so that they shall no more rule over the nations.“Diminish” in Ezekiel comes from the same Hebrew root מעט as “diminished” in Isaiah: in both verses, what is formidable is made few. The shared root makes the reduction concrete, while Ezekiel shows it reaching a kingdom’s power among the nations.
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