What Does Isaiah 25:11 Mean?
And he will spread his hands in their midst, as the swimmer spreads his hands to swim, and he will bring low their swelling, together with the craft of his hands.
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 he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.THE KEY
The swimming gesture is no rescue scene: the hands reach through the water while pride and the spoils gained by those hands are brought low.
THE MEANING
The hands spread as a swimmer’s, yet pride and the gain made by those hands descend together. The verse speaks now wherever power reaches to preserve its height: neither motion nor accumulated spoils can keep it raised.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that reaching harder and accumulating more can keep pride above collapse: the hands move, but the elevation falls.
THE ROOT
גַּאֲוָתוֹ
ga’avato
GROWS FROM
גאה
Rise, be high, or exalt oneself.
“their swelling” in this verse is ga’avato. The Hebrew word for “pride” carries the image of height: what is brought down is an elevation the hands have claimed. The same root can describe rising or triumph, so the verse turns attention to whose height endures.
ALSO GROWS
ga’ah: Rose, became exalted.
גָּאָה
This verb shares the root גאה and names the rising that stands behind the height of pride.
hitga’ah: Exalt oneself, act proudly.
הִתְגָּאָה
This form shares the root consonants גאה and makes the self-raising in pride explicit.
הִשְׁפִּיל
hishpil
GROWS FROM
שפל
Be low or bring low.
“bring low their swelling” in this verse is hishpil. The verb translated “bring down” belongs to the same root as “low.” The height carried by גאה meets its opposite in שפל: the verse depicts pride’s claimed elevation descending.
ALSO GROWS
shāphāl: Low, humble.
שָׁפָל
It shares the root consonants שפל and makes the low state explicit.
shiflut: Lowliness, low state.
שִׁפְלוּת
This noun shares the root consonants שפל and extends the verb’s downward movement into a state of lowliness.
THE PATTERN
Self-exaltation descends, while the lowly are raised by God.
The lifted eyes of man shall be brought low, and the heights of men shall bow down, and the LORD alone shall be lifted high in that day.For everyone who lifts himself will be brought low; and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.Be made low before the face of the LORD, and he will lift you up.THE THREAD
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, I will sing to the LORD, for he has risen high, risen high; horse and rider he has hurled into the sea.The Hebrew root גאה appears in Exodus as “hath triumphed gloriously,” describing the LORD’s rising in victory. Here, the same root’s height belongs to human pride that is brought low; the contrast reveals whose elevation endures.
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