What Does Isaiah 28:13 Mean?
But the word of the LORD will be to them, command upon command, command upon command; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; so that they go, and fall backward, and are broken, and snared, and taken.
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
But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.THE KEY
The repeated word is not background noise: its small measures lead into stumbling, entrapment, and capture.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word comes in small, repeated measures, and its refrain ends in backward movement, fracture, entrapment, and capture. The verse speaks with a hard edge: the word becomes a force of judgment, carrying the hearer into constriction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a word is harmless because it sounds small, simple, or repetitive dissolves here; the refrain itself leads into capture.
THE ROOT
וְנוֹקְשׁוּ
ve-noqshu
GROWS FROM
יקש
y-q-sh
To lay a snare or be ensnared.
“snared” in this verse is ve-noqshu. The Hebrew names a trap, not merely a difficulty. The snare follows the repeated refrain, turning its small measures into a path toward capture.
ALSO GROWS
moqesh: Snare, trap
מוֹקֵשׁ
The noun makes explicit the trap already present in the verb “snared.”
yaqosh: Fowler, one who traps birds
יָקוֹשׁ
This branch names the one who sets the snare, making the image of entrapment concrete.
צַו
tsav
GROWS FROM
צוה
ts-w-h
To command, charge, or appoint.
“command upon command” in this verse is tsav. The refrain pairs צַו (tsav, command) with קַו (qav, measuring line) in a near-rhyming Hebrew cadence. The commands and measured lines repeat in short fragments, then give way to the sequence of stumbling and capture.
ALSO GROWS
tsivvah: He commanded
צִוָּה
The verbal form shows the command contained in “precept.”
mitzvah: Commandment
מִצְוָה
The same root appears as a noun for an instruction, linking the repeated precepts to the language of command.
וְנִלְכָּדוּ
ve-nilkadu
GROWS FROM
לכד
l-k-d
To catch or capture.
“taken” in this verse is ve-nilkadu. The sequence ends in capture, beyond a passing stumble. After being snared, the hearer is held; entanglement gives way to confinement.
ALSO GROWS
lakad: To catch, capture
לָכַד
This verb is the root action named in the verse’s final word.
milkodet: Trap, snare
מִלְכֹּדֶת
The related noun links capture to the trap that holds its prey.
THE PATTERN
A word resisted can become the very route by which stumbling turns into entanglement and capture.
And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be caught.But it shall be, if you do not hear and respond to the voice of the LORD your God, to guard and to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.And a stone to strike against, and a rock that springs the trap, to those who strike against the word and will not yield, and to this they were also set.THE THREAD
And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be caught.The same Hebrew roots for stumbling, breaking, being snared, and being taken recur in both verses. Isaiah 8:15 opens the refrain into a full sequence: the stumble is followed by fracture, entanglement, and capture.
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