What Does Isaiah 58:1 Mean?
Cry aloud, do not hold back, lift your voice like a ram's horn, and declare to my people their rebellion, and the house of Jacob their shortcomings.
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
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.THE KEY
Hebrew keeps rebellion and the mark missed distinct, so the raised voice exposes two different fractures rather than one generic category of wrongdoing.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you with a truth that English can flatten: rebellion and the mark missed are different fractures, and both are brought into the open. Its raised voice makes what is concealed audible now without softening what it names.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that every wrong is only an innocent mistake: the verse names rebellion and missing as distinct realities.
THE ROOT
פִּשְׁעָם
pishʿam
GROWS FROM
פשע
pashaʿ
rebel; break away
The root פשע (pashaʿ, rebel or break away) names a rupture, not merely a mistake. Beside it, חַטֹּאתָם (chattaʾotam, their missings) names a different fracture, so the verse keeps rebellion and a missed mark distinct.
ALSO GROWS
pāshaʿ: to rebel; break away
פָּשַׁע
The verb makes the rupture an action, giving “transgression” the force of breaking away.
pōshēaʿ: a rebel; one who breaks away
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This form names the one who embodies the break, not just an abstract wrong.
peshaʿim: rebellions; transgressions
פְּשָׁעִים
The plural shows the root can name repeated or many-sided ruptures.
חַטֹּאתָם
chattaʾotam
GROWS FROM
חטא
chataʾ
miss; fail
“shortcomings” in this verse is chattaʾotam. This root carries the image of a mark missed, distinct from the breakaway named by פֶּשַׁע (peshaʿ, rebellion). The same root also names חַטָּאת (chattaʾt, a miss or an offering for the missing), holding the failure and what addresses it in one word family.
ALSO GROWS
chataʾ: to miss; fail
חָטָא
The verb gives “sins” its underlying sense of missing or failing.
chet: a miss; an act of missing
חֵטְא
This noun keeps the concrete image of a miss beneath the broader English label.
chattaʾt: a miss; also an offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
The shared root links the named failure with the offering associated with it.
THE PATTERN
Concealed rupture becomes visible when it is named plainly.
And Nathan said to David, You are the man. Thus says the LORD God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I snatched you out of the hand of Saul.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.But all things being exposed are made visible by the light, for whatever is made visible is light.THE THREAD
But he was pierced for our rebellion, and crushed for our crookedness. The straightening that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.Both verses use פשע (pashaʿ, rebel or break away): Isaiah 58 names the people’s rebellion, while Isaiah 53 speaks of “our transgressions.” The root carries the same rupture from exposure here to what is borne there.
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