What Does Isaiah 60:14 Mean?
The sons of those who bowed you low shall walk to you, bent low; and all who spurned you shall bow down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you, City of the LORD, Zion of the Set-Apart One of Israel.
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
The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.THE KEY
Those who once make Zion an object of contempt become the mouths that publicly name her by her belonging to the LORD.
THE MEANING
When contempt presses you down, this verse does not pretend the injury is small: those who afflict and despise you are pictured coming low at your feet. Their mouths then name you by belonging to the LORD, as “The city of the LORD”, so rejection is not the deepest truth spoken over you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that the people who despise you have the final authority to name you: those same voices end up calling you by your belonging to the LORD.
THE ROOT
וְקָרְאוּ
wəqārəʾû
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
To call out; by extension, to name, summon, proclaim, or read aloud.
Here the people do more than speak to Zion: qara is also the Hebrew verb for naming and proclaiming. The mouths that voiced contempt now announce an identity anchored in the LORD, making “call thee” a public naming.
ALSO GROWS
qəriʾāh: A calling, recitation, or reading aloud.
קְרִיאָה
This branch carries the sense of words spoken aloud, as the former despisers now voice Zion’s new designation.
miqrāʾ: An assembly or a public reading.
מִקְרָא
The same root can describe a proclaimed gathering, widening the verse’s naming into a public announcement.
קְדוֹשׁ
qədôš
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
To set apart; to mark as distinct and dedicated.
The title rendered “Holy One” carries the seed of being set apart: it names the LORD as the Set-Apart One, while Zion is named in relation to that nature. This is more than a compliment; it identifies the city by whose presence and belonging define it.
ALSO GROWS
Set-apartness: What is set apart; sacredness.
קֹדֶשׁ
It makes clear that the title points to a distinct belonging, not simply a favorable description.
Sanctuary: A set-apart place; a sanctuary.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This branch links the language of being set apart with a place, echoing Zion’s name as the LORD’s city.
THE PATTERN
People marked by contempt receive a public identity grounded in belonging to God, and former rejecters become witnesses to it.
They shall call them the set-apart people, the ones the LORD has bought back; and you shall be called Sought Out, a city not left behind.Look, I give from the gathering of the Adversary those who call themselves Jews, and they are not, but they lie. Look, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will perceive that I have loved you.Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not been shown compassion, but now you have been shown compassion.THE THREAD
They shall call them the set-apart people, the ones the LORD has bought back; and you shall be called Sought Out, a city not left behind.Isaiah 60:14 uses qara (קרא, qārāʾ, to call or name) when former despisers call Zion the LORD’s city; Isaiah 62:12 repeats that naming verb when the city is called “Sought out” and “not forsaken.” The shared root shows contempt’s label giving way to a new public name.
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