What Does Isaiah 34:1 Mean?
Draw near, O nations, to hear and respond. Bend your ear, O peoples. Let the earth hear and respond, and all that is filled with it, the world and all that springs forth from it.
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
Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.THE KEY
The summons is so wide that the earth itself, and everything that comes from it, is called to hear.
THE MEANING
This summons reaches every people and the world beneath their feet, along with everything that comes from it. The earth is addressed as a hearer, and the doubled call to hear and attend points toward a response.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that divine truth concerns only private faith or human religious circles falls away here: nations, earth, and all it produces are addressed.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, heed, and respond.
“to hear and respond” in this verse is lishmoa. The verse does not merely ask for sound to reach an ear: shema is hearing that receives and responds. By summoning nations and then the earth itself, it makes responsive hearing a world-wide event.
ALSO GROWS
shama‘: Hear, heed
שָׁמַע
This verb gives the summons its force: the call seeks a response, not just the arrival of sound.
shemu‘ah: Report, tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is what is heard and received; the root connects hearing with the message that travels among people.
הַקְשִׁיבוּ
haqshivu
GROWS FROM
קשב
To listen closely and give attention.
“bend your ear” in this verse is haqshivu. The second command adds focused attention to hearing. Beside shema, it makes the doubled summons a movement from receiving sound to attending to what is heard.
ALSO GROWS
qashav: Listen closely, attend
קָשַׁב
This verb supplies the attentive force of the command to the peoples.
maqshiv: One who listens attentively
מַקְשִׁיב
The root can describe the listener, showing attention as an active posture rather than sound merely passing by.
צֶאֱצָאֶיהָ
tse'etsa'eha
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, emerge, or issue forth.
“springs forth from it” in this verse is tse'etsa'eha. The closing phrase means all the world’s offspring, everything issuing from it. The summons includes not only the inhabited world but what it brings forth.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: Go out, emerge
יָצָא
This is the basic movement carried by the phrase: something comes out from its source.
motsa: An emergence, outlet, or point of going out
מוֹצָא
This noun carries the same movement outward, echoing the verse’s attention to what issues from the world.
tse'etsa'im: Offspring, descendants
צֶאֱצָאִים
This related word makes the phrase’s image concrete: what comes forth from the world is its offspring.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats creation as a participant in divine address and its unfolding, not as mute scenery.
Tilt your ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear and respond to the words of my mouth.In that day, I will answer, says the LORD. I will respond to the heavens, and they will answer the earth.For we know that the whole creation groans together and labors together in the pangs of birth until now.THE THREAD
Tilt your ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear and respond to the words of my mouth.Both verses use שמע (shama‘, hear and respond) to address the earth as a listener. Isaiah widens that cosmic summons to the nations and to everything issuing from the inhabited world.
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