What Does Isaiah 47:3 Mean?
Your nakedness shall be uncovered, and your shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet you as a man.
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
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for being uncovered can also mean being revealed, so exposure here brings shame into view before vengeance follows.
THE MEANING
The verse lays bare a chain: covering falls, shame is seen, and vengeance follows. Its final words refuse an ordinary human encounter, leaving the force of the speaker’s response stark and unresolved.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that concealment can keep shame beyond sight is undone.
THE ROOT
תִּגָּלֶה
tigaleh
GROWS FROM
גלה
To uncover, expose, or reveal.
“uncovered” in this verse is tigaleh. The verb holds exposure and revelation together: what is covered becomes visible. Here that unveiling exposes nakedness and shame, so the reveal carries the force of public disgrace.
ALSO GROWS
galah: To uncover or reveal.
גָּלָה
This form shares the root and makes explicit the unveiling contained in “shall be uncovered.”
gillah: He uncovered or revealed.
גִּלָּה
The same root names the act of bringing what was covered into view.
niglah: Was revealed or became visible.
נִגְלָה
This form shows the root’s movement from concealment into what can be seen.
חֶרְפָּתֵךְ
cherpatek
GROWS FROM
חרף
Reproach, insult, or disgrace.
The word names shame as something made visible and attached to a person, not merely a feeling kept inside. The verse places that reproach beside exposure, making the act of seeing part of the humiliation.
ALSO GROWS
cherpah: Reproach or disgrace.
חֶרְפָּה
This noun shares the root consonants and names the public shame spoken of in the verse.
cherēf: He reproached or reviled.
חֵרֵף
This verbal form shows the root’s force as an act of insulting or shaming.
נָקָם
naqam
GROWS FROM
נקם
To avenge or exact vengeance.
“take vengeance” in this verse is naqam. The verse moves from exposure to a declared act of vengeance. This root makes the response explicit: what follows the unveiling is retribution.
ALSO GROWS
naqam: To avenge.
נָקַם
This verb shares the root and expresses the action declared in the verse.
neqamah: Vengeance or retribution.
נְקָמָה
This noun names the retributive force that the speaker announces.
THE PATTERN
Concealment does not prevent what is hidden from coming into the open.
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been uncovered to him.Even darkness does not darken from you; the night lights up like day, and darkness is as light to you.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.THE THREAD
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been uncovered to him.The Hebrew root גלה (galah), meaning “uncover” or “reveal,” appears in both verses. In Isaiah, unveiling exposes shame; here, it brings the LORD’s word into view, the same root, with the surrounding words shaping what the revelation carries.
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