What Does Isaiah 5:19 Mean?
Those who say, Let him hurry, let him rush his work, so that we may see it. Let the counsel of the Set-Apart One of Israel draw near and come, so that we may know 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
That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!THE KEY
Two different Hebrew roots for haste turn the demand to see into a test: bring divine counsel into view on our schedule, and then we will claim to know.
THE MEANING
The voice in this verse remains recognizable now: it demands that God’s counsel appear on its timetable, so it can see first and then claim to know. Its doubled command to hurry exposes how the demand puts the Holy One on trial by the observer’s terms.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s counsel is only credible if it arrives on my schedule and becomes visible on demand.
THE ROOT
יָחִישָׁה
yāḥîšāh
GROWS FROM
חוּשׁ
ḥ-w-š
To hurry or hasten.
“rush his work” in this verse is yāḥîšāh. The second command to hurry uses a different root from “make speed,” so the English near-synonyms hide a piled-on demand. The same root appears in Isaiah 60:22 when the LORD says, “I will hasten it in his time”: speed belongs to the verse, but the taunter does not set its timing.
ALSO GROWS
yāḥîšāh: Let him hasten.
יָחִישָׁה
This is the verse’s second command for swift action, reinforcing the demand for visible proof.
ʾaḥîšennāh: I will hasten it.
אֲחִישֶׁנָּה
Isaiah 60:22 uses this root for the LORD’s hastening “in his time,” shifting the question from speed to whose timing governs it.
יְמַהֵר
yĕmaher
GROWS FROM
מהר
m-h-r
To hurry or hasten.
“hurry” in this verse is yĕmaher. The first command draws on מהר, then the next swaps in חוּשׁ: the speaker stacks two roots for haste to press for immediate proof. The English sounds like simple repetition; the Hebrew makes the insistence denser.
ALSO GROWS
wayĕmaher: And he hurried.
וַיְמַהֵר
This form of the same root appears in Genesis 18:6, showing the root’s straightforward sense of urgent movement.
meherah: Quickly; in haste.
מְהֵרָה
This form carries the same emphasis on speed that the speaker demands for the work.
נֵדָעָה
nēdāʿāh
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know or perceive, including knowing through encounter.
“know it” in this verse is nēdāʿāh. The passage ends with yada: know, perceive through encounter. The speakers make knowing conditional on God performing to their visual deadline, turning perception into a demand for proof.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge; knowing.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root helps show that the verse ends by making knowledge the promised result of seeing.
yōdēaʿ: One who knows; a knower.
יֹדֵעַ
This form makes the root’s focus on knowing explicit, underscoring the speakers’ claim about what they will know once they see.
THE PATTERN
The demand “act on my timetable, then I will believe” turns divine action into proof submitted to the observer.
"Roll onto the LORD; let him slip him free; let him snatch him free, for he delights in him."He delivered others; he cannot deliver himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will lean our weight on him.And saying, "Where is the promise of his arrival? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things remain as they were from the beginning of the creation."THE THREAD
The small one shall become a thousand, and the little one a strong nation; I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time.The mockers command God to hurry; this promise uses the same root חוּשׁ (ḥûš, “hasten”) but places the hastening “in his time.” The shared root makes the difference one of who sets the timing, not whether movement comes.
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