What Does Isaiah 5:14 Mean?
Therefore the grave has widened her throat, and opened her mouth without measure. Their finery, their crowd, their roar, and the one who leaps, go down into her.
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
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.THE KEY
The realm of the dead widens its appetite and opens its mouth without limit, so the crowd, its splendor, and its reveling descend together.
THE MEANING
The verse pictures the realm of the dead as an appetite that expands and a mouth with no measure. The splendor, multitude, uproar, and reveler all descend into it. What looks full of power and life remains within death’s reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief this undoes is that status or celebration can place someone beyond death’s reach.
THE ROOT
הִרְחִיבָה
hirḥivah
GROWS FROM
רחב
r-ḥ-b
raḥav: to be broad, wide, or spacious.
“widened” in this verse is hirḥivah. The Hebrew says Sheol (שְׁאוֹל, sheʾol: the realm of the dead) widens its נַפְשָׁהּ (nafshah: its living soul, here its appetite) before opening its mouth without measure. Death is pictured not as a passive container but as an appetite expanding to meet the crowd.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥāv: broad, spacious
רָחָב
The adjective makes the image spatial: Sheol makes more room.
reḥov: a broad public square or open place
רְחֹב
The word for an open place grows from the same sense of breadth, showing the root’s range of space opened out.
הֲמוֹנָהּ
hamonah
GROWS FROM
המה
h-m-h
hāmāh: to hum, roar, or surge in tumult.
The Hebrew word for “multitude” grows from the same root as “roar” and “surge,” so the crowd is sound and force as well as number. The mouth takes in the uproar, not just a quiet headcount.
ALSO GROWS
hāmāh: to roar, murmur, or make a tumultuous sound
הָמָה
This verb reveals the sound inside the word for multitude.
hāmōn: a crowd, abundance, tumult, or noise
הָמוֹן
The noun holds crowd and tumult together, letting the verse’s multitude carry both mass and roar.
וְיָרַד
veyarad
GROWS FROM
ירד
y-r-d
yārad: to go down or descend.
“go down” in this verse is veyarad. One verb carries the list: splendor, crowd, uproar, and reveler all descend. The Hebrew structure binds the people and their public spectacle to one downward movement.
ALSO GROWS
yeridah: descent
יְרִידָה
The noun names the downward movement that gathers the verse’s list into one outcome.
hōrîd: to bring down or cause to descend
הוֹרִיד
The causative form shows the same root can describe bringing something downward as well as going down.
THE PATTERN
Human abundance cannot satisfy death or preserve the status it accumulates.
Sheol and the place of perishing are never filled, and the eyes of man are never filled.For in his dying he takes nothing, and his weight does not go down after him.But God said to him, Mindless one, this night your living soul will be demanded back from you. Then whose will those things be that you have made ready?THE THREAD
For in his dying he takes nothing, and his weight does not go down after him.Isaiah and the psalm share יָרַד (yārad: descend): Isaiah’s verb carries the splendor, crowd, uproar, and reveler downward, while the psalm says a man’s glory does not descend after him. The shared verb makes the limit visible: splendor meets death, but cannot outlast its bearer.
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