What Does Isaiah 40:8 Mean?
The grass dries, the flower withers, but the word of our God stands for the ages.
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
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.THE KEY
The Hebrew word for God’s “word,” דְּבַר (devar, “word/matter”), can name a matter as well as speech, so what remains is more than a sound.
THE MEANING
Your visible strength and beauty fade, but the word of God remains standing. The verse gives lasting weight to what God says even as the forms around you pass away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what looks vibrant and strong now is therefore what can be relied on most.
THE ROOT
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
davar
to speak; a word or matter
English “word” can sound like language set apart from material things. Hebrew דָּבָר (davar, “word/matter”) can mean a word or a matter, giving God’s speech substance in the very contrast with the fading grass and flower.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: he spoke
דִּבֵּר
The same root can name the act of speaking, linking God’s enduring word with speech.
devarim: words; matters
דְּבָרִים
This plural keeps both senses together: words can also be matters or things.
יָקוּם
yaqum
GROWS FROM
קום
qum
to rise, arise, or stand
“stands” in this verse is yaqum. The verb יָקוּם (yaqum, “will stand”) comes from קום (qum, “rise, arise, stand”). Against what withers and fades, God’s word rises and holds its place.
ALSO GROWS
qam: rose; stood
קָם
The simple form shows the root’s movement from rising to standing.
heqim: raised; established
הֵקִים
This form shows the same root as an establishing that makes something stand.
maqom: place
מָקוֹם
The word for a place grows from the same root associated with standing.
THE PATTERN
What appears enduring can pass away, while God’s word and counsel remain standing.
For the ages, LORD, your word is set in the heavens.Many plans are in the heart of a man, but the counsel of the LORD, it will stand.Heaven and earth pass by, but my words do not pass by.THE THREAD
For the ages, LORD, your word is set in the heavens.The psalm’s דָּבָר (davar, “word/matter”) shares its Hebrew root with Isaiah’s דְּבַר (devar, “word of”). The psalm says this word is settled; Isaiah says it will stand, giving two images of its endurance.
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