What Does Isaiah 59:21 Mean?
As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD. My breath that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not move away from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed's seed, says the LORD, from now and for the ages.
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
As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.THE KEY
The covenant carries God’s breath and words through your mouth into the mouths of generations after you.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s breath rests upon you, and the words placed in your mouth remain present in what you speak. The promise reaches beyond you, continuing through your children and their children. Its life is spoken forward from this moment on.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God’s presence or word ends with one person’s experience. The verse describes what is placed in your mouth as continuing through generations.
THE ROOT
רוּחִי
ruachi
GROWS FROM
ר־ו־ח
r-w-ḥ
Breath or wind; that which moves and animates.
“My breath that is upon you” in this verse is ruachi. The Hebrew word ruach carries the meanings of breath, wind, and spirit together. Here, God’s ruach rests upon you and is joined to words spoken from your mouth: divine presence is expressed as living breath and speech.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind
רוּחַ
This sense shows the same moving force of God’s ruach, now perceived as wind.
ruach: Breath
רוּחַ
This sense brings the verse’s spirit language into the living breath from which speech emerges.
דְּבָרַי
devarai
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; the related noun can mean a word, matter, or thing.
Davar can name both a spoken word and a matter or thing. The words placed in your mouth are not detached sounds: they are speech carried into the lives of those who follow.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
This noun joins what is spoken with the matter being spoken about.
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֵּר
The verb makes the speaking action inside the word root audible in this verse’s image of words in the mouth.
זַרְעֲךָ
zar'akha
GROWS FROM
ז־ר־ע
z-r-ʿ
To sow; seed or offspring.
“the mouth of your seed” in this verse is zar'akha. The same Hebrew word can mean seed and offspring, connecting what is sown with the generations that grow from it. The verse carries God’s words from your mouth into your seed’s mouth, then onward to your seed’s seed.
ALSO GROWS
zeraʿ: Seed or offspring
זֶרַע
This noun holds both the seed that is sown and the descendants named in the verse.
zaraʿ: To sow
זָרַע
The verb echoes the image of what is planted continuing to bear life beyond the one who first receives it.
THE PATTERN
What God places among people continues through living speech from one generation to the next.
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.For he made a testimony stand in Jacob, and set instruction in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, to make them known to their children.And it shall be afterward, that I will pour out my breath upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your elders will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.THE THREAD
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.The word here is דָּבָר (davar), the same root as the words placed in your mouth in Isaiah. Deuteronomy says the word is already near, in your mouth and heart, while Isaiah shows that this nearness continues through the mouths of generations.
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