What Does Isaiah 3:6 Mean?
When a man shall seize his brother of the house of his father, saying, You have a cloak, be our ruler, and let this stumbling be under your hand.
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
When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:THE KEY
The “ruin” placed under a ruler’s hand is the community’s stumble, so leadership begins with being handed its collapse.
THE MEANING
When a community breaks down, people look to whoever still appears to possess the basics: “Thou hast clothing.” They put the stumble itself beneath that person’s hand and call him ruler, as if visible provision can bear the whole failure.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Having what covers you does not mean you can carry what has broken around you.
THE ROOT
הַמַּכְשֵׁלָה
ham-makhshēlāh
GROWS FROM
כשל
To stumble, totter, or fail; this noun carries the sense of a stumbling or downfall.
“this stumbling” in this verse is ham-makhshēlāh. Alongside the sense of ruin, the root keeps the image of a stumble in motion. The crisis is a destabilization handed to the would-be ruler.
ALSO GROWS
kashal: To stumble, totter, or fail
כָּשַׁל
The verb makes the “ruin” a stumbling movement, not only a finished state of destruction.
mikshol: A stumbling block or obstacle
מִכְשׁוֹל
This branch shows how the community’s trouble can itself become an obstruction placed before the one asked to rule.
THE PATTERN
A community’s distress exposes the gap between being assigned authority and being able to bear its burden.
In that day he shall lift his voice, saying, I will not be a binder; for in my house is neither bread nor cloak. Do not set me as ruler of the people.You will surely wither, both you and this people with you, for this word is too heavy for you; you are not able to do it alone.But you shall not be so. Let the greatest among you become as the younger, and the one going before become as the one serving at table.THE THREAD
And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be caught.Isaiah uses the same כשל root for “stumble” that lies beneath the “ruin” placed under the ruler’s hand here. This verse unfolds the image: a stumble can descend into falling, breaking, entanglement, and capture, showing what the ruler is asked to hold.
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