What Does Isaiah 56:5 Mean?
Even to them will I set in my house, and within my walls, a hand and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them a name 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
Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.THE KEY
The name that lasts is not carried forward by descendants; it is given, and what God gives cannot be cut off.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the fear that a life without descendants has no lasting place: God gives you a place within his house and walls and a name for the ages that cannot be cut off. That name is more than a label; it holds your nature and belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that without sons or daughters, your life has no enduring place or name.
THE ROOT
שֵׁם
shem
GROWS FROM
שׂים
Set, put, place. A traditional lexical analysis associates shem, “name,” with this root.
The verse gives both a place and a name: the name is bound to belonging, not merely a label or a legacy carried by descendants. In the verse’s own language, God sets the person within the house and gives them a name for the ages.
ALSO GROWS
sam: He set or placed
שָׂם
Its sense of placing echoes the place God gives within his house.
lasum: To set or place
לָשׂוּם
It brings the root’s sense of setting into view: the name is given as part of a place of belonging.
יִכָּרֵת
yikkaret
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut, sever.
“cut off” in this verse is yikkaret. The same verb used for severing also appears in the expression “cut a covenant.” The name God gives is described as something that cannot be severed; its permanence answers the threat of exclusion.
ALSO GROWS
karat: To cut or sever
כָּרַת
This is the verb behind the promise that the name will not be cut off.
karat berit: To cut a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb can describe forming a binding relationship as well as cutting something away.
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“set” in this verse is natan. “I will give” appears twice: God gives a place and a name. The root holds giving and placing together, showing that belonging and identity are bestowed rather than secured through descendants.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift
מַתָּנָה
The place and name in the verse are given as gifts.
netinah: Giving, an act of giving
נְתִינָה
It echoes the repeated action at the center of the promise: God gives.
THE PATTERN
God gives a lasting place and identity that human lineage cannot determine.
But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and who shaped you, O Israel. Do not fear, for I have bought you back; I have called you by your name; you are mine.God settles the lone ones into households; he brings out the bound ones in chains; but the ones who turn away dwell in a parched land.The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will by no means go out again. I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of the heavens from my God, and I will write upon him my new name.THE THREAD
But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and who shaped you, O Israel. Do not fear, for I have bought you back; I have called you by your name; you are mine.The shared word shem, “name,” makes the promise personal: the name that cannot be cut off is the name by which God calls you. Being called by name is joined to belonging, “thou art mine”, rather than to a line of descendants.
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