What Does Isaiah 25:3 Mean?
Therefore the strong people will give you weight, and the city of the fierce nations will stand in awe of you.
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
Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.THE KEY
The city that makes others tremble becomes the one standing in awe, because God carries a weight no empire can claim.
THE MEANING
What seems absolute in the world around you is not ultimate. Strong peoples give God weight, and even a city that terrifies others stands in awe before him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The city feared by others is beyond any power that could call it to account.
THE ROOT
יְכַבְּדֶךָ
yĕkhabbedekha
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; by extension, to honor.
“give you weight” in this verse is yĕkhabbedekha. The verb rendered “glorify” belongs to the Hebrew family of weight: honor and weight share one root. The nations recognize God’s weight, while the city that once made others tremble stands in awe before him.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight, honor, glory.
כָּבוֹד
This branch joins God’s glory to the weight the nations recognize in him.
kaved: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This branch makes the verse’s honor concrete: to glorify is to regard God as weighty.
יִירָאוּךָ
yîrāʾûkha
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“stand in awe of” in this verse is yîrāʾûkha. Here the word for fear carries awe before God. The city known for making others afraid now recognizes a power beyond its own.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun shows the range of the root: fear can include reverence before a greater power.
nora’: Awe-inspiring, fearsome.
נוֹרָא
This related form describes what evokes awe, illuminating the city’s changed posture before God.
THE PATTERN
When God’s supremacy is revealed, the weight and awe held by nations turn toward him.
All the nations you made come and bow down before your face, O Lord, and give weight to your name.Who will not stand in awe of you, Lord, and give weight to your name? For you alone are set apart, and all the nations come and bow down before your face, for your judgments are made visible.THE THREAD
All the nations you made come and bow down before your face, O Lord, and give weight to your name.Isaiah’s verb rendered “glorify” comes from כבד (k-b-d), the same root Psalm 86:9 uses for the nations who “shall glorify thy name.” The shared root joins God’s honor to weight: the nations recognize his weight in person and in name.
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