What Does Isaiah 45:2 Mean?
I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight. I will break the doors of bronze, and hew through the bars of iron.
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
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:THE KEY
The passage opens from ahead of you: the one who goes before you also levels the way and breaks its barriers.
THE MEANING
The voice in this verse goes ahead of you: uneven ground becomes passable, and barriers that seem sealed are broken open. The way is made straight as the gates and bars give way; the route opens from the far side of what blocks it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must clear every obstacle before the way can open: the one who goes before you is already leveling the route and breaking the barriers.
THE ROOT
אֲיַשֵּׁר
ʾayashēr
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
To be straight, level, or upright.
“make the crooked places straight” in this verse is ʾayashēr. English “straight” can sound like moral correction, but this root also describes level ground and an unobstructed way through. Here, straightening means that the route itself becomes passable.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, level, upright.
יָשָׁר
This root word carries both the shape of a clear path and the sense of what is aligned.
mishor: Level ground, a plain.
מִישׁוֹר
Isaiah 40:4 uses this related word for a leveled way, showing the root’s concrete sense of making passage even.
yosher: Uprightness, straightness.
יֹשֶׁר
The same root can describe uprightness as well as a level route, linking the path’s physical clearing with alignment.
THE PATTERN
The way opens when what blocks or distorts passage is lowered, straightened, or broken.
Every valley is lifted, and every mountain and hill is brought low; the crooked is made straight, and the rough places become a plain.For he shatters gates of bronze, and cuts the bars of iron in two.Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.THE THREAD
Every valley is lifted, and every mountain and hill is brought low; the crooked is made straight, and the rough places become a plain.Isaiah 40:4 uses מִישׁוֹר (mishor), “level ground,” from the same ישר (y-sh-r) root as “I will make straight” here. The shared root shows the promise as the making of a traversable route, while Isaiah 40:4 expands the image to valleys, heights, and rough ground.
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