What Does Isaiah 38:7 Mean?
And this shall be a sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this word that he has spoken.
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 this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;THE KEY
In Hebrew, the promised “thing” and what the LORD has “spoken” share the root דבר (d-b-r): the sign makes their connection visible.
THE MEANING
What is spoken and what takes shape belong together here; the word is not detached from the thing being done. The sign gives you something visible to recognize while fulfillment is still ahead.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a promise is only empty sound until its result appears: here, a sign holds the spoken word and the coming action together.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
ha-davar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
The verbal root means to speak; its related noun carries the senses word, matter, or thing.
The KJV renders the related forms as “thing” and “hath spoken,” though both grow from דבר (d-b-r). The sign reveals that the spoken word and the thing the LORD will do belong to one field of meaning.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This noun names the “thing” the LORD will do and shares its root with the verb translated “hath spoken.”
dibber: He spoke; to speak or declare.
דִּבֵּר
This is the verb translated “hath spoken,” linking the promised event and the spoken word through the same root.
THE PATTERN
A sign makes a spoken promise recognizable through something that can be seen.
I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be the mark of a covenant between me and the earth.And he said, Surely I will be with you, and this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.And they went out and heralded everywhere, the Lord working alongside them and steadying the word with the signs that followed. Amen.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Isaiah 55 uses the same root, דבר (d-b-r), for “word” and connects it with what that word accomplishes. Here, “thing” and “hath spoken” share that root too, so the sign marks where utterance and outcome meet.
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