What Does Isaiah 38:13 Mean?
I lay level until morning; as a lion, so he will break all my bones. From day to night you will finish 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
I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.THE KEY
The verb translated “make an end” shares its root with שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), holding completion and wholeness in one seed even as the speaker feels broken.
THE MEANING
When pain makes the body feel as though every bone is being crushed, the fear of being brought to an end can run from day through night. This verse gives that terror direct speech to God without smoothing its accusation into reassurance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a cry to God must sound calm or confident: the speaker names God as the one making an end of him.
THE ROOT
תַּשְׁלִימֵנִי
tashlimeni
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
Be whole or complete; bring to completion, make good, or repay.
“finish” in this verse is tashlimeni. The verb translated “make an end” belongs to the same root as שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) and שָׁלֵם (shalem, complete). Here that range stays painfully open: the speaker experiences completion as being brought to an end, while the root also carries the idea of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, peace
שָׁלוֹם
This branch shares the root of “make an end,” revealing a connection English does not show without turning the speaker’s suffering into reassurance.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It makes the root’s sense of completion audible beside the verse’s stark ending.
shillem: Repay, recompense
שִׁלֵּם
This branch shows the root can also carry the sense of settling or completing what is due.
יְשַׁבֵּר
yeshabber
GROWS FROM
ש־ב־ר
sh-b-r
Break, shatter.
The root reaches beyond a bodily break to words for fracture, ruin, and crashing force. The lion image and “all my bones” make the speaker’s sense of being overwhelmed unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
shever: Breakage, breach, ruin
שֶׁבֶר
This noun shows how the root can name a fracture or collapse, not only the act of breaking bones.
mishbar: Breaker, a crashing wave or billow
מִשְׁבָּר
The root also names a force that crashes over and overwhelms, echoing the lion’s crushing force in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Pain speaks to God in bodily language, naming what is being broken without softening it.
Show me favor, O LORD, for I am withering; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are shaken.At night my bones are pierced within me, and my sinews do not lie down.In the days of his flesh, he brought near prayers and clinging pleas, with a strong outcry and tears, to the one able to deliver him out of death, and he was heard because of his awe.THE THREAD
LORD, you will set wholeness for us; for you also have worked all our works for us.Isaiah 26:12 uses שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness or peace), from the same root as the verb translated “make an end” here. The shared root holds completion and wholeness together without turning this speaker’s suffering into reassurance.
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