What Does Isaiah 42:5 Mean?
Thus says God the LORD, who creates the heavens and stretches them out, who beats out the earth and what comes out of it, who gives breath to the people upon it and breath to those who walk in it.
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
Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:THE KEY
The One who stretches the heavens keeps giving breath and רוּחַ (ruach, wind, breath, spirit) to the people walking on earth.
THE MEANING
The One who stretches the heavens gives נְשָׁמָה (neshamah, breath) to people on earth and רוּחַ (ruach, wind, breath, spirit) to those walking there. Your breath and movement belong to the living world the Creator sustains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that your life sustains itself, separate from creation, gives way: this verse names breath and ruach as gifts from the One who made the heavens and earth.
THE ROOT
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
Wind, breath, or spirit: moving air and the life it carries.
“breath to those who walk in it” in this verse is ruach. The ruach given to those walking on earth is the same Hebrew word rendered “wind” and “breath” elsewhere. English “spirit” can sound separate from bodily life, while this word also carries the sense of moving air and lived breath.
ALSO GROWS
Wind: Wind, moving air.
רוּחַ
In Genesis 8:1, God sends a ruach over the earth; the same word here names what God gives to those who walk upon it.
Breath: Breath entering the bones.
רוּחַ
In Ezekiel 37:5, ruach is rendered “breath,” linking this verse’s spirit to the breath by which life moves.
נֹתֵן
noten
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, or place.
“giveth” in this verse is noten. The verse describes God as the one giving breath and ruach, extending creation into the life of those on earth. A word from the same root names a gift: what sustains life is received from the Creator.
ALSO GROWS
Give: To give, grant, or place.
נָתַן
This is the verb’s root form; it makes the giving in this verse part of a wider pattern of placing or granting.
Gift: A gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root illuminates the verse’s picture of breath and ruach as gifts from the Creator.
THE PATTERN
Life within creation is continually received as a gift from its Creator.
And the LORD God shaped the ground-being, Adam, from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.The breath of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty keeps me alive.Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, for he himself gives to all life and breath and all things.THE THREAD
And the LORD God shaped the ground-being, Adam, from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.The “breath of life” here is נִשְׁמַת (nishmat, breath of) from נְשָׁמָה (neshamah, breath), the same word Isaiah says God gives to people on earth. Isaiah then adds רוּחַ (ruach, wind, breath, spirit) for those walking there, joining the gift of breath to the life that moves through the world.
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