What Does Isaiah 49:13 Mean?
Ring out, heavens; leap, earth; burst into a ringing cry, mountains, for the LORD has comforted his people, and shall have compassion on his bowed ones.
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
Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.THE KEY
The mercy promised to the afflicted shares its Hebrew root with “womb,” making compassion here a life-holding nearness that turns the whole landscape into song.
THE MEANING
The heavens, earth, and mountains sing because the LORD comforts his people and turns toward the afflicted with compassion. When you are afflicted, you are not outside the reach of that care; the verse gives it a voice across creation.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Affliction is proof that you have been forgotten or are beyond tenderness; here, the afflicted are explicitly the recipients of compassion.
THE ROOT
יְרַחֵם
yerachem
GROWS FROM
רחם
r-ḥ-m
To show compassion; this root also appears in the Hebrew word for womb.
“have compassion on” in this verse is yerachem. The word translated “mercy” carries an intimate depth: its root also appears in רֶחֶם (rechem, “womb”), evoking compassion that holds and protects life. The LORD’s care reaches the afflicted as close, sustaining tenderness.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: Womb
רֶחֶם
This related word gives compassion a life-holding resonance, illuminating the tenderness offered to the afflicted.
rachamim: Compassion; tender mercies
רַחֲמִים
This noun from the same root makes clear that the LORD’s response is compassionate care, not distant notice.
נִחַם
niḥam
GROWS FROM
נחם
n-ḥ-m
To comfort or console; in other forms, to relent.
“comforted” in this verse is niḥam. The comfort here is more than a private feeling: it reaches a people and becomes audible in creation’s song. Its root also carries the sense of relenting, so consolation can mark a changed response as well as comfort received.
ALSO GROWS
neḥamah: Consolation; comfort
נֶחָמָה
This noun from the same root names the solace promised to the LORD’s people.
menaḥem: One who comforts; comforter
מְנַחֵם
This related form shows the root describing the one who brings consolation, not only the feeling itself.
רִנָּה
rinnah
GROWS FROM
רנן
r-n-n
To cry aloud or sing joyfully.
“ring out” in this verse is rinnah. The opening “Sing” and the mountains’ “singing” come from the same root, רנן (ranan, “to sing aloud”). The repeated word binds heavens and mountains into one refrain in response to the LORD’s comfort and compassion.
ALSO GROWS
rannu: Sing aloud; cry out in joy
רָנּוּ
This is the opening call to the heavens, using the same root as the mountains’ song.
rinnah: A ringing cry; joyful song
רִנָּה
This is the song that bursts from the mountains, completing the refrain begun by the heavens.
THE PATTERN
When God’s restoring care reaches people in distress, the response expands into creation’s joy.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth leap; let the sea roar, and what fills it.The LORD your God is within you, the mighty one; he will deliver; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will hush in his love; he will exult over you with a ringing cry.Because the creation itself will also be set free from the slavery of decay into the weighty freedom of the children of God.THE THREAD
For the mountains will be moved, and the hills will totter, but my faithful love will not move away from you, nor will the covenant of my wholeness totter, says the LORD who has compassion on you.Isaiah 49:13 says the LORD will have compassion on the afflicted; Isaiah 54:10 uses the same רחם (racham, “compassion”) root for the LORD’s mercy. The shared root ties the song over the mountains to care that remains even when the mountains move.
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