What Does Isaiah 56:11 Mean?
Yes, they are dogs fierce in living soul, who never know being filled, and they are shepherds who cannot discern. Each one has turned to his own way, each for his gain, from his edge.
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
Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.THE KEY
The watchmen’s failure is a turn: those meant to tend others have faced toward their own path and profit.
THE MEANING
This verse names a failure of care that begins as a direction: those entrusted to tend others turn toward their own path and private gain. Their hunger never reaches enough, and their role no longer gives them discernment. Where you hold responsibility now, the verse exposes whether your attention serves the people entrusted to you or your own gain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a caretaker’s title guarantees care: the role can remain while attention and appetite serve only the self.
THE ROOT
פָּנוּ
panu
GROWS FROM
פנה
To turn, face, or direct oneself toward.
“turned to his own way” in this verse is panu. The verb rendered “look to” means they turn toward their own way. Their direction is part of the charge: attention has become self-directed.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face; presence.
פָּנִים
The face is where direction becomes visible; the verse pictures the watchmen’s attention turned toward themselves.
penu elai: Turn toward me.
פְּנוּ־אֵלַי
Isaiah 45:22 uses this same root to call people toward God, making the object of the turn the hinge.
לְבִצְעוֹ
levitzo
GROWS FROM
בצע
To cut off or break off; the related noun means gain or profit.
Each watchman turns toward his own gain. The root’s range gives that profit a hard edge: it can carry the sense of cutting off or breaking away, as though each secures a share for himself.
ALSO GROWS
batsaʿ: To cut off; to break off.
בָּצַע
This verb shares the root with the word for gain, giving the pursuit of profit an image of taking a portion away.
betzaʿ: Gain; profit, often unjust gain.
בֶּצַע
This noun names what each person seeks for himself in the verse.
רֹעִים
roʿim
GROWS FROM
רעה
To tend, pasture, shepherd, or feed.
The word carries the work of tending and feeding. That makes the contrast sharp: these shepherds turn toward their own profit while failing to understand the people they are meant to tend.
ALSO GROWS
roʿeh: Shepherd; one who tends or feeds.
רֹעֶה
The role itself names care for a flock, which the verse sets against self-serving direction.
mirʿeh: Pasture; grazing place.
מִרְעֶה
Pasture belongs to the same root’s field of tending and feeding, underscoring what the shepherds’ work should provide.
THE PATTERN
When caretakers turn their attention toward personal gain, the people entrusted to them are left unfed.
Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD, Woe to those who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?Its heads judge for a bribe, and its priests teach for a price, and its prophets divine for silver. Yet they lean their full weight upon the LORD and say, Is not the LORD in our midst? No harm can come upon us.Shepherd the flock of God among you, watching over it, not by force but willingly, according to God; and not for shameful gain but eagerly.THE THREAD
Turn your face to me, and be delivered, all the edges of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.“Look unto me” translates פְּנוּ־אֵלַי (penu elai, “turn toward me”), sharing the root פנה with the watchmen who turn toward their own way here. One verse exposes a turn inward; the other calls people to turn toward God and be delivered.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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