What Does Isaiah 59:1 Mean?
Behold, the LORD's hand is not cut short, that it cannot deliver; nor is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.
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
Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:THE KEY
The LORD’s hand and ear are not the bottleneck: deliverance and hearing remain within reach.
THE MEANING
The LORD can reach you with deliverance, and he can hear you; neither distance nor a dulled ear limits him. Your cry is not beyond his hearing, and the need before you is not beyond his hand.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that the LORD is too distant or too burdened to hear you.
THE ROOT
הוֹשִׁיעַ
hôshîaʿ
GROWS FROM
ישע
Deliver, rescue; bring out of constriction into spaciousness.
“deliver” in this verse is hôshîaʿ. The word translated “save” carries the root sense of deliverance: being brought out of constriction into room to live. The verse says that this delivering reach has not run short.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
It names the release the verse says the LORD’s hand can still bring.
moshia: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
It names the one who brings a person out, showing that deliverance is an act of reaching and bringing forth.
כָּבְדָה
kavedah
GROWS FROM
כבד
Be heavy, weighty.
The ear is not “heavy”: this root also carries the idea of weight found in kavod, “weight” or “glory.” The image is of hearing unburdened by weight, fully able to receive the cry.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy, weighty
כָּבֵד
It is the same word family as the description of the ear, making hearing a question of whether weight obstructs it.
kavod: Weight, weightiness; glory
כָּבוֹד
The familiar word for glory shares this root, revealing a hidden link between what is heavy and what has weight.
קָצְרָה
qatsrah
GROWS FROM
קצר
Be short, cut short; also, reap.
The Hebrew pictures the hand as not cut short: its ability to act has not been clipped. The same root’s reaping branch brings the image of cutting into the word itself.
ALSO GROWS
qatsar: Reap, cut down
קָצַר
The shared root makes “not shortened” carry an echo of a hand whose power to cut through and act remains.
qatsir: Harvest, crop
קָצִיר
This branch names what is reaped, extending the root’s cut-short image into the work of the hand.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s reach and hearing remain able to meet the cry.
And the LORD said to Moses, "Has the LORD's hand been cut short? Now you will see whether my word will meet you or not."He does the delight of those in awe of him; he hears and responds to their outcry, and delivers them.For the eyes of the LORD are upon the aligned, and his ears are open to their pleading; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil.THE THREAD
This bowed one cries out, and the LORD hears him, and brings him out of all his narrow places.Psalm 34:6 places both claims of Isaiah 59:1 together: the LORD hears (שָׁמַע, shamaʿ, “hear”) and delivers (הוֹשִׁיעַ, hôshîaʿ, “deliver”). Isaiah names the hand and ear as unobstructed; the psalm shows a cry received and a person brought out.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us