What Does Isaiah 40:2 Mean?
Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her that her hard service is filled, that her crookedness is released, for she has taken from the LORD's hand double for all her shortcomings.
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
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “pardoned” also means “accepted,” so the release restores favor along with declaring the struggle complete.
THE MEANING
The word reaches you at the heart: the struggle has reached its appointed end, and your crookedness is pardoned. What comes from the LORD’s hand is called double for all her sins, holding the measure of the account alongside its release.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that your wrongdoing leaves you permanently rejected is undone: the verse calls Jerusalem’s crookedness pardoned and her struggle complete.
THE ROOT
נִרְצָה
nirtzah
GROWS FROM
רצה
to be pleased with, accept, or receive favorably
“released” in this verse is nirtzah. נִרְצָה describes the crookedness as pardoned, while its root also means to accept or receive favorably. Pardon here carries the relational shade of restored acceptance: the person is received favorably.
ALSO GROWS
rāṣāh: to accept or be pleased with
רָצָה
This verb form makes the root’s language of acceptance audible beneath the verse’s word “pardoned.”
tirtseh: you accept or favor
תִּרְצֶה
The same root consonants show acceptance as an act of favor, not merely a status attached to a person.
כִּפְלַיִם
kiflayim
GROWS FROM
כפל
to double or fold
“double” in this verse is kiflayim. כִּפְלַיִם names a doubled measure, leaving the scale of what Jerusalem receives explicit. The root’s image of folding or doubling gives the word a concrete weight beside the announcement of pardon.
ALSO GROWS
kāphal: to double or fold
כָּפַל
This verb is the action behind the doubled measure named in the verse.
kephel: a doubling or fold
כֶּפֶל
This noun makes the root’s doubled measure visible as a thing received.
דַּבְּרוּ
dabbəru
GROWS FROM
דבר
to speak or declare
“speak” in this verse is dabbəru. The verse commands speech directed עַל־לֵב, literally “to the heart.” Comfort arrives as a spoken announcement that the struggle is complete and pardon is real.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
The speech belongs to the same root as “word” and “matter,” giving the announcement substance.
dibber: he spoke or addressed
דִּבֵּר
This form makes clear that the command is to address Jerusalem directly.
THE PATTERN
God’s restorative word names concrete release from bondage and wrongdoing.
You release the crookedness of your people; you cover all their falling short. Selah.The breath of the Lord LORD is upon me, for the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the bowed ones; he has sent me to bind up the broken of heart, to proclaim flowing freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are chained.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
And he shall lean his hand upon the head of the rising offering, and it shall be pleasing for him, to cover over him.Isaiah’s “pardoned” is נִרְצָה, from the root רצה; Leviticus uses the same Hebrew form for what “shall be accepted.” The shared root lets pardon open into restored acceptance before the LORD.
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