What Does Isaiah 55:13 Mean?
In place of the thorn shall rise the fir tree, and in place of the brier shall rise the myrtle, and it shall be to the LORD a name, a sign of the ages that shall not be cut off.
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
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.THE KEY
The LORD’s nature becomes visible as what once pricked the ground gives way to life whose sign cannot be severed.
THE MEANING
What pricks and constricts in your life gives way to living growth that stands in its place. That change makes the LORD’s nature visible and remains a sign across the ages, beyond severing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what has injured or constrained you must define the ground forever, or that renewal can only be temporary.
THE ROOT
יִכָּרֵת
yikkaret
GROWS FROM
כרת
karat
To cut or sever.
The sign’s endurance is described through the language of severing: it cannot be cut off. The same root appears in the Hebrew expression for making a covenant, literally “cut a covenant,” echoing a bond that holds across what could be severed.
ALSO GROWS
kārat berit: Cut a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The covenant expression uses the same root for cutting, connecting a binding relationship with the verse’s promise that its sign cannot be cut away.
hikhrit: Cut down, destroy.
הִכְרִית
This causative form makes the force of the verse’s promise vivid: the sign will not be destroyed or severed.
עוֹלָם
olam
GROWS FROM
עלם
alam
To be hidden or beyond sight; עוֹלָם carries the sense of an age or ages.
“sign of the ages” in this verse is olam. The sign extends across the ages, rather than belonging to a passing moment. Paired with “not be cut off,” that span becomes an image of endurance measured against severance.
ALSO GROWS
neʿelam: Hidden, concealed, or out of sight.
נֶעְלָם
This form preserves the root’s sense of what lies beyond immediate view, echoing the long horizon carried by עוֹלָם.
heʿelim: To hide or conceal.
הֶעְלִים
This related form makes the root’s hidden horizon audible beneath the word for an age or ages.
לְשֵׁם
leshem
GROWS FROM
שֵׁם
Name as the expressed identity or nature of its bearer.
The new growth becomes a name to the LORD: a visible expression of the LORD’s nature. The changed landscape does more than replace damaged growth; it makes that nature legible.
ALSO GROWS
shem: Name; expressed nature or identity.
שֵׁם
This is the base form behind “for a name,” tying the renewed growth to what the LORD is known by.
shemō: His name; his expressed nature.
שְׁמוֹ
This possessive form shows how a name belongs to and expresses its bearer, as the verse’s sign expresses the LORD’s nature.
THE PATTERN
When restoration takes hold, signs of harm give way to living growth and enduring wholeness.
I will set in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will place in the desert the fir, and the pine, and the box, together.Because the creation itself will also be set free from the slavery of decay into the weighty freedom of the children of God.And nothing placed under the curse will be there any longer. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him.THE THREAD
And I will raise up my covenant with you; never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.“Cut off” translates the same Hebrew root, כרת (karat), in both verses. Genesis speaks of life no longer being severed by the flood; Isaiah shows enduring renewal as a sign that cannot be severed.
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