What Does Isaiah 29:9 Mean?
Linger and be stunned; stare and stare! They are drunk, but not from wine; they reel, but not from strong drink.
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
Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.THE KEY
Perception can be drunk and the body can reel even when there is no wine in the cup.
THE MEANING
You can be sober and still find your perception clouded and your footing unsteady. The verse leaves the disorientation real while ruling out wine and strong drink as its cause. Its opening moves from delay into astonishment, so even the call to wonder carries the feel of being stunned.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being free of wine guarantees clear perception; this verse names a sober person as genuinely reeling.
THE ROOT
שָׁכְרוּ
shakhru
GROWS FROM
שכר
To become intoxicated or drunk.
“drunken” in this verse is shakhru. The verb for being drunk and the noun for strong drink share this root, while the verse explicitly says there is no wine. The impairment remains real even when its familiar source is absent.
ALSO GROWS
shekhar: Strong drink.
שֵׁכָר
The same root names the drink and the state it can produce, making the verse’s denial of drink especially sharp.
shikkor: A drunk or intoxicated person.
שִׁכּוֹר
This branch names the person in the state described here, whether or not a cup explains it.
וּתְמָהוּ
utemahu
GROWS FROM
תמה
To be astonished or stunned.
“be stunned” in this verse is utemahu. This is astonishment with the force of being stopped in your tracks. It echoes the opening הִתְמַהְמְהוּ (hitmahmehu, “linger”) in sound, though the two words come from different roots: delay gives way to stunned perception.
ALSO GROWS
tameah: Astonished or amazed.
תָּמֵהַּ
It shows wonder as a state of being struck with astonishment, not only admiration.
timmahon: Astonishment or bewilderment.
תִּמָּהוֹן
This noun carries the same root into a condition of stunned perplexity.
נָעוּ
na'u
GROWS FROM
נוע
To move to and fro, sway, or waver.
“reel” in this verse is na'u. The word points to movement that cannot settle into a steady line. Beside intoxication, it gives the inner disorientation a visible form: the body’s motion also loses its footing.
ALSO GROWS
nua: To move, sway, or wander.
נוּעַ
It exposes the motion inside “stagger”: the person is shifting without steadiness.
tenu'ah: Movement or motion.
תְּנוּעָה
This noun from the same root makes the verse’s emphasis on bodily movement visible.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses intoxication to name disorientation and influence beyond the cup itself.
You have made your people see hard things; you have made us drink the wine of staggering.Awake, awake, rise, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his burning. You have drunk the dregs of the cup of reeling, and drained them.And do not become drunk with wine, in which is excess, but be filled with the breath.THE THREAD
For the LORD has poured out upon you a breath of deep sleep, and has shut your eyes; the prophets and your heads, the seers he has covered.The next verse names what this verse leaves unnamed: deep sleep is poured out and eyes are closed. The images connect the staggering to perception covered, so the missing cup does not make the impairment unreal.
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