What Does Isaiah 56:12 Mean?
Come, they say, I will take wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink, and tomorrow shall be as this day, a great day, and overflowing.
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
Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.THE KEY
The intoxicated voice mistakes an ever-larger appetite for an ever-richer tomorrow.
THE MEANING
When appetite speaks in you, it promises that tomorrow will repeat today with more. The verse exposes how desire can call its own escalation abundance while its measure is clouded by strong drink.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
More consumption guarantees a fuller tomorrow.
THE ROOT
שֵׁכָר
shekhar
GROWS FROM
שכר
The root שכר (sh-k-r) means to be or become drunk, to be intoxicated.
שֵׁכָר (shekhar, strong drink) names the drink through the state it brings. Its root reveals the intoxication behind the promise of “much more”: a dulled measure treats tomorrow’s excess as abundance.
ALSO GROWS
shakhar: To become intoxicated.
שָׁכַר
The same root names the state behind the speakers’ confident forecast.
shikkor: A person in an intoxicated state.
שִׁכּוֹר
This branch makes clear that the promise of a greater tomorrow comes from a voice whose measure is clouded.
THE PATTERN
When desire governs, tomorrow becomes a story that authorizes what the self wants today.
And behold, joy and gladness, slaying cattle and slaughtering the flock, eating flesh and drinking wine. "Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."And I will say to my living soul, Living soul, you have much good stored for many years. Rest, eat, drink, and be glad.Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and stay there a year, and trade, and gain."THE THREAD
You do not know what tomorrow holds. For what is your life? You are a mist, showing itself for a little while, and then made unseen.Isaiah’s voice treats tomorrow as today’s guaranteed enlargement; James names what that certainty cannot see. The vapor image exposes “much more” as the speaker’s intoxicated forecast, not secure knowledge.
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