What Does Isaiah 55:1 Mean?
Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters, and whoever has no silver, come, break open and eat. Yes, come, break open wine and milk, without silver and without price.
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
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.THE KEY
The invitation is measured by thirst, while the repeated command to buy is emptied of money and price.
THE MEANING
Your thirst is enough to place you inside the invitation. Waters, wine, and milk are offered even when you have no money; the language of buying remains, yet no price bars the way.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that nourishment is inaccessible without money dissolves here: the invitation explicitly includes the one who has none.
THE ROOT
צָמֵא
tsāmēʾ
GROWS FROM
צמא
ts-m-ʾ
To thirst, to be thirsty.
“thirsteth” in this verse is tsāmēʾ. The offer begins with thirst, not worthiness, means, or ability to pay. The same root names both the thirsty person and thirst itself, keeping the need visible as the very thing the invitation addresses.
ALSO GROWS
tsāmāʾ: Thirst.
צָמָא
This noun shares the seed of צָמֵא, the thirsty person, tying the person to the need the offer meets.
tsimmāʾôn: Thirst or drought.
צִמָּאוֹן
The word can name thirst at its most intense, echoing the stark lack that makes the invitation to drink matter.
THE PATTERN
Life-giving provision is offered to thirst before it is earned or purchased.
For I will pour waters upon the thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground. I will pour my breath upon your seed, and my blessing upon your shoots.On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.And the Breath and the bride say, Come. And let the one who hears say, Come. And let the one who thirsts come. Let whoever wills take the waters of life as a gift.THE THREAD
For I will pour waters upon the thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground. I will pour my breath upon your seed, and my blessing upon your shoots.The Hebrew צָמֵא (tsāmēʾ, “thirsty”) in both verses comes from צמא (ts-m-ʾ, “to thirst”). Isaiah 44:3 answers that same thirst with poured water, opening this invitation as provision for the very lack it names.
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