What Does Isaiah 32:6 Mean?
For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work crookedness, to practice soiling, and to speak straying against the LORD, to empty the living soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fall short.
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 vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.THE KEY
The verse binds speech against the LORD to material deprivation: the same heart that speaks folly empties the hungry and denies the thirsty drink.
THE MEANING
The verse shows you a heart whose speech against the LORD and treatment of people in need are one work. The hungry person’s living soul is emptied, and the thirsty person’s drink is made to fail; the harm is felt as unmet need.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
That words against God are only a matter of belief, separate from what happens to the hungry and thirsty.
THE ROOT
נָבָל
nāḇāl
GROWS FROM
נבל
n-b-l
To wither or fade; in this word family, a senseless or base person and the folly of such conduct.
“fool” in this verse is nāḇāl. The Hebrew repeats nāḇāl (נָבָל, a base or senseless person) and nəḇālāh (נְבָלָה, folly) from the same root. The person’s character and speech are joined at the root, and the verse shows that folly bearing fruit in the hungry person’s deprivation.
ALSO GROWS
nāḇēl: To wither or fade.
נָבֵל
The root’s image of decline adds depth to the description of a life marked by folly.
nāḇāl: A fool or base person.
נָבָל
This is the person named at the start of the verse; the same root returns in the word for his folly.
nəḇālāh: Folly or disgraceful conduct.
נְבָלָה
This is the related word for the person’s speech and conduct, linking the speaker to what he produces.
תּוֹעָה
tōʿāh
GROWS FROM
תעה
t-ʿ-h
To wander, stray, or go off course; the related noun carries the sense of wandering or error.
English “error” can sound like an isolated wrong statement; this root carries the image of straying. The verse’s errant speech against the LORD is joined to a path whose effects reach the hungry and thirsty.
ALSO GROWS
tōʿāh: Wandering or error.
תּוֹעָה
This is the word used for what the speaker utters; its root suggests speech that has strayed from its course.
tāʿînû: We have gone astray.
תָּעִינוּ
Isaiah 53:6 uses this form of the same root, making “error” a movement away from the path, not just an incorrect claim.
לְהָרִיק
ləhārîq
GROWS FROM
ריק
r-y-q
Empty; to make empty or pour out.
“to make empty” in this verse is ləhārîq. The verse makes deprivation an action: the hungry person’s living soul is emptied, while the thirsty person’s drink is made to fail. The same image of emptiness reaches both inner life and bodily need.
ALSO GROWS
rēq: Empty or vacant.
רֵיק
This names the condition the verb imposes on the hungry person’s living soul.
rēqām: Empty-handed or without result.
רֵיקָם
The related word carries emptiness into a person’s condition, sharpening the force of making someone already hungry empty.
THE PATTERN
A heart is exposed by whether its words and choices leave others in need or move toward feeding and restoring them.
There is one who blurts like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise is healing.And if you pour out your living soul to the hungry, and fill the bowed-low living soul, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom shall be as the noonday.For I hungered, and you gave me food; I thirsted, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in.THE THREAD
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.Isaiah 32:6 uses צָמֵא (tsāmēʾ, thirsty) for the one whose drink is made to fail; Isaiah 55:1 repeats that same word and opens an invitation to the waters. The shared word makes the contrast exact: thirst can be met, or left without drink.
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