What Does Isaiah 55:6 Mean?
Seek the LORD while he may be found, call out to him while he is near.
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
Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:THE KEY
The LORD is not merely the object of the search: the verse presents him as already near and able to be encountered.
THE MEANING
The verse holds an open present: the LORD is findable and near. Seeking turns attention toward him, and calling gives that attention a voice. The repeated “while” gives the invitation an edge of time; this nearness is real now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God is too distant to be reached or that calling meets only silence: the verse names him as findable and near.
THE ROOT
בְּהִמָּצְאוֹ
bə-himmāṣəʾô
GROWS FROM
מ־צ־א
Find, encounter, come upon.
The Hebrew form is Niphal, “be found”, so the verse frames encounter as possible, rather than making the LORD something the seeker must bring into reach. The root can mean to come upon or meet; “found” carries the texture of encounter.
ALSO GROWS
matsaʾ: To find, come upon.
מָצָא
The active form clarifies the encounter carried by the verse’s “be found.”
nimtsa: To be found.
נִמְצָא
This Niphal form shares the verse’s framing of the LORD as findable.
קָרוֹב
qarov
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־ב
Approach, come near, bring near.
“Near” comes from the root of approaching and bringing near, so it carries more than a measured distance. The same root appears in qorban, drawing near; here, nearness holds the possibility of approach within it.
ALSO GROWS
qarav: To approach, come near.
קָרַב
This verb makes the root’s movement explicit: nearness and approach belong to the same word family.
qorban: Drawing near; an offering brought near.
קָרְבָּן
This branch carries the same root movement of coming near into a concrete act.
קְרָאֻהוּ
qeraʾuhu
GROWS FROM
ק־ר־א
Call out, proclaim, read aloud.
“call out to” in this verse is qeraʾuhu. This root spans calling aloud, proclaiming, and reading aloud, giving “call upon him” a voiced, directed quality. The verse holds that address alongside seeking: the search finds expression in a call.
ALSO GROWS
qeriʾah: Calling or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
This branch shows that the root joins a call with spoken or read words.
miqra: Reading, proclamation, assembly.
מִקְרָא
The root’s range links calling with public proclamation, extending the verse’s image beyond silent thought.
THE PATTERN
Scripture joins seeking and calling with a nearness that makes finding possible.
And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.The LORD is near to all who call out to him, to all who call out to him in truth.That they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.THE THREAD
The LORD is near to all who call out to him, to all who call out to him in truth.In both verses, “near” is קָרוֹב (qarov, near), from ק־ר־ב (q-r-b, approach or come near), and “call” comes from קָרָא (qaraʾ, call or proclaim). The psalm brings Isaiah’s two phrases together: the call meets nearness already present.
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