What Does Isaiah 25:10 Mean?
For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, and Moab will be threshed under him, as straw is threshed in the dung-water.
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 in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.THE KEY
Rest and crushing occupy the same scene: the LORD’s hand settles on the mountain while Moab is trampled beneath him.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s hand rests on this mountain while Moab is trodden down beneath him like straw at a dunghill. The image holds stillness and brutal force together; the rest does not soften what happens to Moab.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a resting divine hand means gentleness for everything beneath it: this scene includes Moab being trampled down.
THE ROOT
וְנִדְרַךְ
wenidrakh
GROWS FROM
דָּרַךְ
To tread or step; in this form, to be trodden down.
“trodden down” in this verse is wenidrakh. The Hebrew form presents Moab as receiving the force of a foot pressing it down. The same root names דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, a way or path), joining the act of treading with the path made by steps, a connection English does not show.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: Way, road, path
דֶּרֶךְ
A path is a way feet tread; the root that describes Moab’s trampling also names a way made by steps.
midrakh: Footing, a place to tread
מִדְרָךְ
This branch keeps the image physical: something is set beneath a foot.
תָּנוּחַ
tanuach
GROWS FROM
נוּחַ
To rest, settle, or come to rest.
The verb depicts the LORD’s hand settling on the mountain. That settled presence stands beside the trampling of Moab, so the verse’s rest is neither an absence of force nor a softening of the judgment it describes.
ALSO GROWS
menuchah: Rest, resting place
מְנוּחָה
This noun shows rest as a place or condition of settledness, echoing the hand resting on the mountain.
heniach: To set down or cause to rest
הֵנִיחַ
This causative form carries the sense of placing something down, sharpening the image of the hand coming to rest on the mountain.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses treading underfoot to make visible who holds power over whom.
I have trodden the winepress alone, and none of the people was with me. For I will tread them in the burning of my anger, and trample them in my heat. Their blood will be spattered on my garments, and I will soil all my clothing.On the lion and the adder you tread; the young lion and the serpent you trample.Look, I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the strength of the enemy, and nothing will by any means injure you.THE THREAD
Through God we will make strength, and he will tread down those who narrow us.The Hebrew root דָּרַךְ (darakh, to tread) appears here in “tread down our enemies.” It makes the force in Isaiah’s image plain: the one trodden is placed beneath, and the act of treading shows who holds the power.
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