What Does Isaiah 57:17 Mean?
For the crookedness of his gain I was angry, and I struck him. I hid myself, and I was angry, and he walked turning back in the way of his heart.
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
For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.THE KEY
The repeated word for covetous gain grows from a root that means both profit and cutting off, exposing grasping as a way of taking by severance.
THE MEANING
In this verse, covetous gain meets God’s anger and smiting; when God hides himself, anger remains while the heart keeps its wayward course. The verse holds the wound and the crooked continuation together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that God’s hiddenness means the anger has passed: the verse says God hides himself and remains wroth while the heart’s wayward course continues.
THE ROOT
בִּבְצֹעַ
bivṣōaʿ
GROWS FROM
בצע
Cut off or break off; by extension, secure gain or profit, often unjustly.
Isaiah repeats this root in בִּבְצֹעַ (bivṣōaʿ, gaining) and בִּצְעוֹ (biṣʿō, his gain), binding the pursuit to its product. Its range from cutting off to profit lets covetousness carry the sharper possibility of gain made by cutting something away.
ALSO GROWS
bātsaʿ: To cut off, break off, or gain.
בָּצַע
This verb’s cutting and acquiring senses give the verse’s gain a possible edge of taking something away.
betsaʿ: Gain or profit, often unjust gain.
בֶּצַע
This noun names the gain at the center of the verse’s accusation.
bōtsēaʿ: One who gains; a greedy taker of gain.
בֹּצֵעַ
The verse’s repeated root appears elsewhere for the person pursuing gain, joining the appetite to the one who acts on it.
שׁוֹבָב
shōvāv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
To turn or return.
“walked turning back” in this verse is shōvāv. The word rendered “frowardly” is שׁוֹבָב (shōvāv, wayward or rebellious), from שׁוּב (shūv, turn or return). The verse describes more than a stumble: the person keeps moving along a way marked by a turned, wayward heart.
ALSO GROWS
shūv: To turn or return.
שׁוּב
This is the root whose turning sense underlies the verse’s word for waywardness.
meshūvāh: Backsliding or turning away.
מְשׁוּבָה
This related word shows how the same root can describe a continuing way of turning aside.
THE PATTERN
When gain is pursued through taking, it bends the pursuer’s way and turns into a loss of life.
So are the paths of every one who cuts for gain; it takes the living soul of its owners.For from the small of them even to the great of them, every one cuts for gain; and from the prophet even to the priest, every one works a lie.For the love of silver is a root of all evil, which some, reaching out for it, have wandered away from trust, and pierced themselves through with many pains.THE THREAD
So are the paths of every one who cuts for gain; it takes the living soul of its owners.Proverbs uses the same Hebrew root for “greedy of gain” that Isaiah repeats in its phrase about covetous gain. Its next clause says the gain-taker’s path takes the owners’ life, making the cost of that pursuit visible.
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