What Does Isaiah 37:5 Mean?
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
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
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.THE KEY
The servants of “YHWH strengthens” move toward the one whose name means “YHWH delivers”, strength arrives at the threshold of deliverance.
THE MEANING
Those who serve move toward a voice whose name bears deliverance. The verse holds the moment a need is carried toward a response beyond the ones bearing it.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁעְיָהוּ
Yeshayahu
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver, bring out.
“Isaiah’s name” in this verse is Yeshayahu. Yeshayahu carries the sense “YHWH delivers,” sharing its root with the word for deliverance. The servants arrive at a name that points beyond the person to the source of being brought out.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
It shares the root that gives Isaiah’s name its deliverance meaning.
hoshia: He delivered
הוֹשִׁיעַ
This verb makes the name’s root an act: bringing someone out.
חִזְקִיָּהוּ
Chizqiyahu
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong, make firm, strengthen.
“King Hezekiah’s name” in this verse is Chizqiyahu. Hezekiah’s name carries the sense “YHWH strengthens.” Beside Isaiah’s deliverance-name, it frames the movement as strength reaching toward being brought out.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: Strong, firm
חָזָק
It shares the root of Hezekiah’s name and gives strength its quality of firmness.
chizeq: Strengthened
חִזֵּק
This form expresses the strengthening carried in the name.
עַבְדֵי
avdei
GROWS FROM
עבד
Serve, work.
The servants are named from the same root as serving: their identity and their action share one seed. Here, those defined by service are also the ones who move toward counsel.
ALSO GROWS
eved: Servant
עֶבֶד
This is the singular form of the word translated “servants.”
avodah: Work, service
עֲבוֹדָה
It shows the broader field of labor and service carried by the root.
THE PATTERN
When the way is unclear, people carry their question toward a trusted bearer of divine counsel.
And Moses said to his father-in-law, Because the people come to me to seek God.And he said to him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is a man of weight. All that he says comes, surely comes. Now let us go there, for perhaps he can show us our road that we should go.As he went out on the way, one came running, knelt before him, and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit the life of the ages?THE THREAD
Deliverance belongs to the LORD; your blessing is upon your people. Selah.The Hebrew word translated “Salvation” shares the root ישע (yasha) with Isaiah’s name, Yeshayahu. The servants arrive at the name of deliverance; the psalm names the LORD as its source.
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