What Does Isaiah 4:3 Mean?
And it shall be that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called set apart, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem.
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 it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:THE KEY
Holiness here is the name given to every one written for life in the city whose own name carries wholeness.
THE MEANING
The verse names a remnant: those left in Zion and remaining in Jerusalem are called set apart, every person recorded for life. “Every one” makes that designation shared, not reserved for a visibly exceptional few. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Yerushalayim: twofold wholeness) gives the place-name a resonance of life gathered into wholeness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that being set apart belongs only to a spiritual elite: the verse names every one written for life in Jerusalem as set apart.
THE ROOT
קָדוֹשׁ
qādôš
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
Set apart; marked off as distinct or belonging to a sacred sphere.
The verse calls the people written for life קָדוֹשׁ (qādôš, set apart), naming their belonging rather than listing a moral score. Its wording places the whole recorded remnant under that name.
ALSO GROWS
qōdeš: Set-apartness; sacredness
קֹדֶשׁ
The shared root makes holiness a state of belonging to what is set apart, illuminating why the verse applies the name to the entire group.
qiddēsh: Set apart; consecrate
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb shows the root as an act of marking something for a distinct purpose, echoing the verse’s designation of those written for life.
חַיִּים
chayyim
GROWS FROM
חיה
ch-y-h
To live, remain alive, or revive.
The Hebrew phrase לַחַיִּים (laḥayyim, for life) points toward life, complementing the KJV’s “among the living.” The verse joins that life-bearing inscription with the name set apart: every one recorded for life in Jerusalem receives that designation.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Alive; living
חַי
The adjective names the living person, making the registry in the verse about people belonging to life.
chayah: To live; remain alive
חָיָה
The verb makes life an active condition, fitting the verse’s focus on those who remain and are written for life.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries the wholeness of שָׁלוֹם (shālôm, wholeness) in a dual form. The name of the place echoes the verse’s image of those written for life gathered into wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shālôm: Wholeness; completeness
שָׁלוֹם
This shared sound and sense lets the city’s name echo the wholeness surrounding those named in the verse.
shālēm: Whole; complete
שָׁלֵם
The same root connects the place-name’s resonance to the state of being whole.
THE PATTERN
Being written for life marks belonging to a community recognized as set apart.
Let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living, and let them not be inscribed with the aligned.Yet do not rejoice in this, that the breaths submit to you, but rejoice instead that your names have been written in the heavens.Yes, I ask you also, true yokefellow, take hold with those women, who struggled beside me in the good news, with Clement also, and with the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the scroll of life.THE THREAD
Let them be wiped out of the scroll of the living, and let them not be inscribed with the aligned.Both verses use כתב (k-t-b, write or inscribe) for being recorded, and both place that writing beside the living. Isaiah turns the shared image toward inclusion: those written for life in Jerusalem are named set apart.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us