What Does Isaiah 37:6 Mean?
And Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says the LORD, Do not fear at the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me.
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
And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.THE KEY
The threatening voice can be heard without being enthroned as truth: Isaiah’s name, יְשַׁעְיָהוּ (Yesha‘yahu, “YHWH delivers”), already answers it.
THE MEANING
Threatening words reach the reader’s ear, but they do not get to define what is true or rule the reader’s inward posture. The LORD’s word names the speech as reviling while refusing to let it govern the hearer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The loudest threat must be the most authoritative voice.
THE ROOT
תִּירָא
tîrāʾ
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear or stand in awe.
“Do not fear” in this verse is tîrāʾ. The root holds fear and awe within one word-family, so the command reaches beyond suppressing a feeling: it denies these threatening words the authority to command fear. The danger is heard, but it does not become the reader’s highest authority.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear, awe
יִרְאָה
This noun from the same root shows the wider range of the response the verse addresses.
morāʾ: Dread, awe
מוֹרָא
This branch makes visible how fear can carry the weight of reverence or dread.
הַדְּבָרִים
ha-devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; the related noun davar can mean a word, matter, or thing.
English “words” can sound like mere speech, but Hebrew davar can also name a matter or thing. The threat is a claim about reality, yet hearing it does not make it the final word.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
This noun holds speech and matter together, revealing the claim carried by the threatening words.
dibber: To speak
דִּבֵּר
The verb shares the root, tying the heard words to the act of speaking them.
גִּדְּפוּ
giddefu
GROWS FROM
גדף
To revile, insult, or defy, especially toward God.
“have reviled me” in this verse is giddefu. This verb names the speech as an attack on God rather than ordinary criticism. The verse preserves the insult’s severity while separating it from the fear it seeks to produce.
ALSO GROWS
gidduf: Reviling, blasphemy
גִּדּוּף
This noun makes explicit the kind of speech the verse identifies.
megaddef: One who reviles or blasphemes
מְגַדֵּף
This form describes the speaker by the act of attacking through speech.
THE PATTERN
A threatening voice may be heard without becoming the authority that governs the hearer.
In God I praise his word; in God I lean my weight. I do not fear what flesh can do to me.Wholeness I leave with you; my wholeness I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be stirred, and do not let it shrink.For God has not given us a breath of cowering, but a breath of power, and of love, and of a mind kept whole.THE THREAD
In God I praise his word; in God I lean my weight. I do not fear what flesh can do to me.Psalm 56:4 joins the same two roots: davar (“word”) and yare (“fear”). It sets the threat of what people can do beside God’s word and trust in God, making the same distinction visible: hearing threatening words does not require surrendering to fear.
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