What Does Isaiah 26:10 Mean?
Let the wicked be shown favor, yet he will not be trained in alignment. In the land of straightness he works crookedness, and he will not see the lifting of the LORD.
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
Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.THE KEY
Favor can be shown and upright ground can surround someone, yet neither forces alignment or opens their sight to the LORD’s majesty.
THE MEANING
Favor can reach a person without forming them in alignment. Even on ground described as upright, they can act unjustly and remain unable to perceive the LORD’s majesty. The verse names refusal as both a way of acting and a way of seeing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that receiving goodness or living among what is right automatically makes someone just or able to perceive God.
THE ROOT
צֶדֶק
tsedeq
GROWS FROM
צדק
To be just or right; justice and alignment.
The verse places צֶדֶק (tsedeq, alignment) beside someone who refuses to learn it. The following image of unjust action shows alignment as something expressed in how a person acts, not merely a quality of the surrounding land.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: A just or aligned person.
צַדִּיק
It shows alignment as a quality embodied by a person.
tsedaqah: Justice or righteousness expressed in action.
צְדָקָה
It makes clear that the alignment the person will not learn has practical expression.
לָמַד
lamad
GROWS FROM
למד
To learn or be taught; in an intensive form, to teach or instruct.
“be trained” in this verse is lamad. The verse’s refusal is a refusal to be taught into alignment. This root’s branches connect learning with instruction and formation, making the failure more than simply not knowing what is right.
ALSO GROWS
limmud: One who is taught or trained.
לִמּוּד
It shows learning as a process that forms the learner.
melammed: A teacher or instructor.
מְלַמֵּד
It reveals the teaching relationship implicit in learning righteousness.
יֻחַן
yuchan
GROWS FROM
חנן
To show favor or act graciously.
The verse allows favor to be shown to the wicked while they still refuse to learn alignment. The root’s branches carry the sense of favor and graciousness, but the verse does not treat receiving favor as proof that a person has changed.
ALSO GROWS
chen: Favor.
חֵן
It names the favor shown in the verse.
channun: Gracious.
חַנּוּן
It links the favor received to the gracious character expressed in giving it.
THE PATTERN
Being given goodness or truth does not guarantee that a person receives its forming force.
Or do you look down upon the fullness of his kindness, and the holding back, and the slowness to heat, not perceiving that the kindness of God leads you to turning?Because I call out and you refuse; I stretch out my hand, and no one bends an ear.And this is the sifting, that the light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil.THE THREAD
Learn to do good. Seek justice, straighten the crushed, judge the fatherless, contend for the widow.Isaiah 1:17 uses the same root לָמַד (lamad, to learn or be taught) and makes learning concrete through just action. Beside Isaiah 26:10, it sharpens the refusal: alignment is a way of being taught into practice, not merely something present in the surroundings.
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