What Does Isaiah 28:21 Mean?
For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim, he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his strange work, and to serve his service, his strange service.
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 the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.THE KEY
The LORD’s “strange work” is his own action breaking through in a form the reader does not recognize.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s anger breaks through and shakes what feels settled. The verse calls this both his work and strange: it belongs to him, yet exceeds familiar expectations. Its force remains unsettling in the words themselves.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that the LORD’s work must arrive in a familiar or gentle form to be his own.
THE ROOT
פְּרָצִים
Peratsim
GROWS FROM
פרץ
parats
To break through, burst out, or make a breach.
“Mount Perazim” in this verse is Peratsim. The place name carries the image of breaches or breakings-through. That root makes the verse’s action feel like a force that ruptures what contains it, rather than a quiet continuation of the familiar.
ALSO GROWS
parats: Break through; burst out.
פָּרַץ
This verb names the force carried in the place name.
perets: A breach or break-through.
פֶּרֶץ
The noun makes visible the opening created when a barrier gives way.
יִרְגָּז
Yirgaz
GROWS FROM
רגז
ragaz
To tremble, quake, or become agitated; also to rage.
“rage” in this verse is Yirgaz. The verb translated “wroth” carries the sense of agitation and trembling as well as anger. English can make it sound like a settled feeling; the Hebrew also gives the image of upheaval.
ALSO GROWS
ragaz: Tremble, quake, or rage.
רָגַז
The verb’s range holds anger and physical agitation together.
rogez: Agitation, trembling, or rage.
רֹגֶז
This related noun keeps the shaking quality audible beneath “wroth.”
נָכְרִיָּה
Nokhriyyah
GROWS FROM
נכר
n-k-r
To distinguish or recognize; in this word family, foreign or outside what is one’s own.
English repeats “strange,” but Hebrew shifts from זָר (zar, foreign) for the work to נָכְרִיָּה (nokhriyyah, foreign or alien) for the act. The second word shares its root with a verb for recognizing, giving the phrase the sense of an act outside familiar recognition.
ALSO GROWS
nokhri: A foreigner or outsider.
נָכְרִי
It names someone as outside the familiar group.
hikkir: Recognize or notice.
הִכִּיר
This related form makes the contrast with an unrecognized act especially clear.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s work can break into settled expectations with a force people do not recognize beforehand.
And David came to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there, and said, The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim, lord of breaches.Look among the nations, and gaze, and be stunned. For I will work a work in your days that you will not lean your weight on, though it is told you.Look, you who look down, and marvel, and vanish, for I work a work in your days, a work you will by no means trust, even should someone recount it to you.THE THREAD
And David came to Baal-perazim, and David struck them there, and said, The LORD has broken through my enemies before me, like a breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim, lord of breaches.Perazim carries the same פרץ (parats) root made explicit here: the LORD “hath broken forth” like water breaching a barrier. That root opens Isaiah’s strange work as a forceful breakthrough.
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