What Does Isaiah 22:25 Mean?
In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will slip, and will be cut down and fall, and the burden upon it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken.
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
In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.THE KEY
The peg’s fall is not isolated: what it supports is severed with it.
THE MEANING
A support can be firmly placed and still be removed. When the peg falls, the load attached to it is cut away; the LORD’s spoken word reaches both what bears the weight and the weight it bears.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Anything firmly established is permanent and beyond removal.
THE ROOT
נֶאֱמָן
ne’eman
GROWS FROM
אמן
Be firm, steady; be confirmed.
“sure place” in this verse is ne’eman. The word translated “sure” comes from אמן (aman), a root that gathers firmness, steadiness, and trust together. The peg is set in a place described as dependable, yet even this firm placement is not permanent: the LORD’s word can remove it.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Trust; steadiness, firmness.
אֱמוּנָה
Trust shares a root with firmness: it is the quality of what can bear weight.
amen: Firmly; truly; so be it.
אָמֵן
The familiar response carries the root’s sense of confirming what is firm.
מַשָּׂא
massa
GROWS FROM
נשא
Lift, carry, bear.
The burden is מַשָּׂא (massa), from נשא (nasa), “lift, carry, bear”: it is weight being carried. The same root names a bearer and can name a leader as one lifted up, joining the ideas of carrying weight and being raised into a position.
ALSO GROWS
nose’: One who carries; a bearer.
נֹשֵׂא
The bearer is formed from the same root as the burden, making the load and what carries it part of one word-family.
nasi’: Leader, prince; one lifted up.
נָשִׂיא
The root also names one raised into prominence, linking being lifted up with the weight-bearing image of the verse.
THE PATTERN
Being raised or firmly placed does not put anything beyond the LORD’s power to bring down.
The LORD strips, and makes rich; he lays low, and lifts high.For God is the judge. This one he brings low, and this one he lifts.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.THE THREAD
I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a seat of weight for his father's house.Both verses use יָתֵד (yated), “peg” or “nail,” and נֶאֱמָן (ne’eman), “firm” or “steady.” The earlier image calls the peg firmly placed and weight-bearing; this verse shows the peg and the burden it supports removed together.
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