What Does Isaiah 55:11 Mean?
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent 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
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.THE KEY
In Hebrew, *davar* can mean both “word” and “matter,” holding what leaves God’s mouth close to what it accomplishes.
THE MEANING
God’s word reaches you now with a purpose and does not return empty. It accomplishes what God desires and flourishes where it is sent. The verse presents the word as active in the place it reaches.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s word can arrive as empty sound, unable to bring about what it is sent to do.
THE ROOT
דְּבָרִי
devari
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; *davar* can mean a word, matter, or affair.
English can make a word sound separate from the matter it describes. Hebrew *davar* holds speech and matter together, letting this verse present God’s word as bound up with what it accomplishes.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or affair
דָּבָר
The same word can name both what is spoken and the matter at hand.
dibber: Spoke
דִּבֵּר
The spoken word belongs to the same root as the word that goes forth.
medabber: Speaking
מְדַבֵּר
This form keeps the root’s connection between speech and the word itself.
שְׁלַחְתִּיו
shelaḥtiv
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, release, or let go.
The word is described as something sent out with direction. Its movement outward is part of the verse’s picture of how it reaches the place where it accomplishes its purpose.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: Envoy or messenger
שָׁלִיחַ
A messenger is one sent forth with a purpose.
Shiloach: Sent; the name of a pool
שִׁלֹחַ
The name preserves the root’s sense of something sent forth.
וְהִצְלִיחַ
vehitzliach
GROWS FROM
צלח
Advance, succeed, or prosper.
“break through” in this verse is vehitzliach. The word does not merely arrive; it succeeds in the place where it is sent. The root gives the verse a sense of forward movement and flourishing within its appointed reach.
ALSO GROWS
hitzliach: Succeeded or caused to prosper
הִצְלִיחַ
This verb form expresses the success the verse promises for the sent word.
hatslachah: Success or prosperity
הַצְלָחָה
This noun carries the same sense of flourishing outcome.
THE PATTERN
When God’s word is sent, its arrival is shown by what it brings about.
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.For the word of God is living and working, and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching through even to the dividing of living soul and breath, of joints and marrow, and it separates the inward movements and thoughts of the heart.THE THREAD
He sends his utterance upon the earth; his word runs very swiftly.The Hebrew behind “sendeth forth” comes from שלח, the same root as Isaiah’s “sent it.” Psalm 147 pairs that sending with a word that runs swiftly, making the outward movement in Isaiah’s image visible.
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