What Does Isaiah 50:9 Mean?
Behold, the Lord GOD will gird me. Who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they all wear out like a garment, and the moth eats them up.
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
Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.THE KEY
Help stands beside you before the question of condemnation is asked, while the voices that condemn are already wearing out like cloth.
THE MEANING
You are not alone before a verdict: the Lord GOD helps you, and those who condemn you do not last. Their voices are like a garment eaten by moths, losing their hold over time.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that condemnation has the final word over you. This verse places the Lord GOD’s help ahead of the verdict and gives the condemning voices an ending.
THE ROOT
יַרְשִׁיעֵנִי
yarshiʿēnî
GROWS FROM
רשע
To act wickedly or be guilty; in this verb form, to declare guilty or condemn.
The word translated “condemn” grows from the same root as words for guilt and wickedness. The question reaches beyond who can accuse you: it asks who can establish that guilt as the final truth about you.
ALSO GROWS
rāšāʿ: A wicked or guilty person.
רָשָׁע
The same root links the act of condemning with the state of being judged guilty.
rešaʿ: Wickedness or guilt.
רֶשַׁע
This noun names the guilt that a condemning verdict claims to establish.
יִבְלוּ
yivlû
GROWS FROM
בלה
To wear out, become worn, or grow old.
“wear out” in this verse is yivlû. The verse uses the language of wearing out for the fate of those who condemn: their endurance is no greater than a garment’s. The moth’s eating makes that fading concrete, their apparent strength is already being consumed.
ALSO GROWS
bālāh: To wear out or grow old.
בָּלָה
This verb is the same root in a fuller form and makes the garment image a process of wearing away.
bālēh: Worn-out or old.
בָּלֶה
This adjective describes the garment’s condition and shows the root’s movement from wearing out to being worn.
יַעֲזָר
yaʿăzār
GROWS FROM
עזר
To help, support, or come to another’s aid.
“gird” in this verse is yaʿăzār. The verse names help before it raises the threat of condemnation. Its root also appears in words for aid itself, giving the promise a sense of support that meets the reader where the accusation stands.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēzer: Help or aid.
עֵזֶר
This noun names the support the verse says is present.
ʿezrāh: Help or assistance.
עֶזְרָה
This related noun carries the same root into the concrete idea of aid.
THE PATTERN
Accusations lose their final authority when the LORD stands with the one they target.
No weapon shaped against you will push through, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn. This is the portion of the servants of the LORD, and their alignment is from me, declares the LORD.For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to deliver him from those who judge his living soul.Who will bring any charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who aligns.THE THREAD
No weapon shaped against you will push through, and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn. This is the portion of the servants of the LORD, and their alignment is from me, declares the LORD.Isaiah 50:9 and 54:17 use the same Hebrew root, רשע, for “condemn.” The first asks who can establish a condemning verdict; the later verse shows the accusation answered under the LORD’s judgment.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us