What Does Isaiah 40:10 Mean?
Look, Lord LORD comes with a strong hand, and his arm rules for him. Look, his wages are with him, and his work goes before him.
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
Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.THE KEY
Rule, recompense, and work arrive as one movement, the authority is already carrying its outcome.
THE MEANING
The Lord’s coming meets you now with strength and authority. His recompense is already with him, and his work stands before him. What he brings and what he comes to do are joined.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the Lord’s arrival carries no outcome or action with it.
THE ROOT
שְׂכָרוֹ
sekharō
GROWS FROM
שכר
To hire or pay wages; by extension, wages or recompense.
The word carries the concrete sense of wages or hire as well as recompense. Here the recompense is with the Lord as he comes, while his work is before him: what is brought and what is done meet in the same scene.
ALSO GROWS
sāchar: To hire or pay wages.
שָׂכַר
This verb keeps “reward” connected to the world of work and payment.
sāchīr: A hired worker.
שָׂכִיר
The hired worker makes the root’s link between recompense and work visible.
פְּעֻלָּתוֹ
pe'ullātō
GROWS FROM
פעל
To do, act, or work.
The word for work comes from the root for acting or doing. Its place “before him” gives the action a forward position in the verse, alongside the recompense that is already with him.
ALSO GROWS
po'el: A worker or one who acts.
פֹּעֵל
This branch names the agent whose action the root describes.
pe'ullah: Work, deed, or action.
פְּעֻלָּה
This is the same word used for “work” in the verse, holding the concrete deed within the root.
בְּחָזָק
bechozaq
GROWS FROM
חזק
To be strong, grow firm, or take hold.
The strength in “strong hand” belongs to a root that can describe becoming strong and strengthening something. The verse’s authority is expressed as strength that acts through the hand and arm.
ALSO GROWS
chazaq: To be strong or prevail.
חָזַק
This verbal form shows strength as an active condition, fitting the Lord’s coming with a strong hand.
chizzeq: To strengthen or make firm.
חִזֵּק
This branch connects strength with the act of making something firm, illuminating the arm that rules.
THE PATTERN
The coming ruler carries recompense alongside the work by which his rule is known.
Behold, the LORD has caused it to be heard to the end of the earth, saying to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your deliverance comes; behold, his wages are with him, and his work before him.Look, I come swiftly, and my wages are with me, to give back to each one as his work will be.THE THREAD
Behold, the LORD has caused it to be heard to the end of the earth, saying to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your deliverance comes; behold, his wages are with him, and his work before him.The same Hebrew words for recompense, שָׂכָר (sakhar), and work, פְּעֻלָּה (pe’ullah), return together in this verse. Their pairing ties the Lord’s coming to both what he brings and the work that stands before him.
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