What Does Isaiah 21:6 Mean?
For thus the Lord said to me, Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.
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
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.THE KEY
The watchman’s task is to make sight public: what is seen becomes a message when it is declared.
THE MEANING
This verse places you inside a chain of attention and speech: a watchman is set to observe what is unfolding, and what comes into view is declared. His report stays tethered to what he sees.
THE ROOT
הַמְצַפֶּה
hametsappeh
GROWS FROM
צפה
tsaphah
To look out, keep watch.
“a watchman” in this verse is hametsappeh. English gives “watchman” as a role, but צפה (tsaphah, to look out) names an act of sustained attention. The lookout is one who keeps something in view before it is reported.
ALSO GROWS
tsopheh: Watcher, lookout.
צֹפֶה
This is the watchman’s role in a related form: one who watches.
mitspah: Lookout, watchtower.
מִצְפֶּה
The lookout’s place grows from the same root as the person keeping watch.
יַגִּיד
yaggid
GROWS FROM
נגד
nagad
To make known, declare.
“declare” in this verse is yaggid. The verse’s word for declaring comes from a root associated with making something known. The movement is from keeping what is seen in view to making it known to others.
ALSO GROWS
higgid: He told, declared.
הִגִּיד
This related form names the act of reporting what has been made known.
maggid: One who tells or announces.
מַגִּיד
The report becomes the work of a person who makes something known.
THE PATTERN
A witness receives a charge to attend, then makes what is seen or heard known.
I will stand upon my watch, and station myself upon the tower, and I will watch to see what he will speak to me, and what I shall answer when I am corrected.So you, son of man, I have set you as a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me.For we cannot keep from speaking what we have seen and heard."THE THREAD
Son of man, I have set you as a watchman over the house of Israel; therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me.Isaiah’s “watchman” and Ezekiel’s are built from צפה (tsaphah, to look out and keep watch). Isaiah names what the watchman reports; Ezekiel adds that the watchman receives a word and gives it out.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us