What Does Isaiah 32:10 Mean?
Days upon years you will tremble, women who lean your full weight; for the vintage will run out, the gathering will not come.
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
Many days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come.THE KEY
Behind “careless” is a word for being secure: the shock is that those who feel settled are the ones told they will tremble.
THE MEANING
The vintage fails, the gathering never comes, and the security of the women gives way to trouble. The verse speaks now wherever provision seems settled, naming the possibility of loss without making that loss abstract.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Feeling secure does not mean the things you rely on cannot fail.
THE ROOT
בֹּטְחוֹת
bōṭĕḥôt
GROWS FROM
בטח
To trust or feel secure.
“who lean your full weight” in this verse is bōṭĕḥôt. The word names women who feel secure, not simply women who are negligent. The verse turns that felt security into trembling, exposing the distance between feeling settled and knowing what the harvest will bring.
ALSO GROWS
bāṭaḥ: To trust or feel secure.
בָּטַח
This verb is the root beneath the women’s description: their ease carries the sense of confidence.
mivṭāḥ: A refuge or place of security.
מִבְטָח
This related noun makes the idea of security concrete: the verse asks what can truly serve as a refuge when the vintage fails.
תִּרְגַּזְנָה
tirgaznah
GROWS FROM
רגז
To quake, tremble, or become agitated.
“tremble” in this verse is tirgaznah. The word evokes shaking, not just a passing concern. The verse sets that agitation against the women’s sense of security and names the shock of a harvest that does not arrive.
ALSO GROWS
rāgaz: To quake, tremble, or become agitated.
רָגַז
This verb makes the coming trouble feel like a real shaking of the people who felt secure.
rōgez: Agitation or tumult.
רֹגֶז
This related noun carries the same root into the state of upheaval the verse announces.
THE PATTERN
Security built on expected provision can be shaken when the yield fails.
And your strength shall be used up for emptiness, for your land shall not give its yield, nor shall the trees of the land give their fruit.The one who leans his weight upon his riches falls, but the aligned bloom like a leaf.And I will say to my living soul, Living soul, you have much good stored for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and be glad.THE THREAD
For thus says the Lord GOD, the Set-Apart One of Israel. In turning back and in rest you will be delivered. In stillness and in leaning your full weight will be your strength, and you would not.The word rendered “careless” here and “confidence” in Isaiah 30:15 comes from בטח (bāṭaḥ), meaning to trust or feel secure. The shared root opens a question beneath the warning: what is the confidence resting on when the harvest fails?
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