What Does Isaiah 32:9 Mean?
Rise, women at ease; hear and respond to my voice, daughters who lean your full weight; give ear to my speech.
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
Rise up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear unto my speech.THE KEY
The word translated “careless” shares the root of “trust”: felt security can dull the ear that needs to hear.
THE MEANING
Ease can leave the reader unready to hear what is being said. The verse calls the secure to rise and attend to the voice reaching them now. Its paired commands make listening the opening through which a sense of safety can be examined.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Feeling at ease does not prove that nothing needs attention or that there is no reason to listen.
THE ROOT
בֹּטְחוֹת
boṭḥot
GROWS FROM
בטח
b-ṭ-ḥ
To trust, rely on, or feel secure.
“daughters who lean your full weight” in this verse is boṭḥot. The daughters are described with a word from the root of trust and security, so “careless” carries a sense of being confident or untroubled. The verse places that felt security beside a command to rise and listen: ease can soften attention, though the same root can also describe trust placed elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
bāṭaḥ: To trust or rely confidently.
בָּטַח
This is the verb used for trust in Psalm 56:3, showing that the root can describe confidence rather than mere inattention.
mibṭāḥ: Confidence, security, or refuge.
מִבְטָח
This noun makes explicit the sense of security inside the word translated “careless”; the verse addresses people who feel settled and safe.
שְׁמַעְנָה
shemaʿnah
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear or listen, with response included when the context calls for it.
“hear and respond to” in this verse is shemaʿnah. The command is more than sound reaching the ear; it calls for the voice to be received. Set beside “give ear,” it presses the reader toward attentive hearing rather than remaining passively at ease.
ALSO GROWS
shāmaʿ: To hear or listen; to hear and respond when response is implied.
שָׁמַע
This verb is the seed of the command and keeps listening connected to what follows from hearing.
shemuʿah: A report, announcement, or thing heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This noun shows that the root can name what arrives by hearing, highlighting that the verse directs attention toward a voice and its message.
THE PATTERN
A sense of ease can conceal vulnerability when it is mistaken for proof that no warning needs attention.
Woe to those who are at rest in Zion, and who are leaning full weight upon the mountain of Samaria, who are named head of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!And I will say to my living soul, Living soul, you have much good stored for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and be glad.When they say, "Wholeness and firm footing," then sudden ruin stands over them, like labor pains upon a woman carrying a child in her womb, and they will not escape.THE THREAD
On the day I tremble, I lean my weight upon you.“Trust” here comes from the same Hebrew root as “careless” in Isaiah. The shared root can describe confidence that dulls attention or trust held in the presence of fear; the word’s direction matters.
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