What Does Isaiah 62:10 Mean?
Go through, go through the gates; clear the way for the people; heap up, heap up the highway; gather out the stones; lift a banner for the people.
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
Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.THE KEY
The people’s way opens through a paired motion: the highway is raised, the stones are cleared, and a signal is lifted for all to see.
THE MEANING
The verse places you on a route made passable for the people: it is raised, cleared of stones, and marked by a visible standard. The obstacles are movable, and the direction is made visible to those traveling together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a blocked route must be abandoned: here the way is raised and cleared until the people can pass.
THE ROOT
סֹלּוּ
sollû
GROWS FROM
סלל
Raise, heap up, build up.
“heap up” in this verse is sollû. The highway is not merely pointed out; it is raised into a passable route. The same root shapes both the command to build up and the road that results.
ALSO GROWS
mesillah: Highway, raised road.
מְסִלָּה
This is the highway named in the verse, the built-up passage made by the command to raise it.
solelah: Embankment or mound.
סֹלְלָה
The same root describes earth heaped up, showing that the road is formed by raising material into a route.
פַּנּוּ
pannû
GROWS FROM
פנה
Turn, face; in this form, clear or make room.
“clear the way” in this verse is pannû. English can make “prepare” sound like planning ahead, but this word belongs to the family of turning and facing, and here it carries the sense of clearing room. The way opens as space is made for passage.
ALSO GROWS
panah: Turn, face, direct oneself toward.
פָּנָה
Preparation carries an orientation toward the route, not only advance planning.
panim: Face, presence.
פָּנִים
The shared word-family joins turning with facing; the cleared way gives the people a direction to face.
סַקְּלוּ
saqqelû
GROWS FROM
סקל
Stone; in this form, clear a surface of stones.
“gather out” in this verse is saqqelû. This root also names stoning; here the stones are removed from the people’s route. The stones themselves are אֶבֶן (even, stone), heard in this lens through אָב (av, father) and בֵּן (ben, son): what obstructs the way carries a relation, not merely a label.
ALSO GROWS
saqal: Stone, pelt with stones.
סָקַל
The root’s force can be directed against a body; here the stones are taken off the path instead.
seqilah: Stoning.
סְקִילָה
This branch retains the root’s violent use, sharpening the contrast with stones removed so the people can pass.
THE PATTERN
A route for the people becomes passable when it is raised, cleared of obstruction, and marked so its direction can be seen.
A voice calls out in the wilderness, Clear the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a raised road for our God.And it shall be said, Heap up, heap up, clear the way, lift up the stumbling block out of the way of my people.Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth.THE THREAD
A voice calls out in the wilderness, Clear the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a raised road for our God.Both passages use מְסִלָּה (mesillah, highway), from סלל (salal, raise or heap up). Isaiah 40:3 carries the same raised-road image into the wilderness: the passage is built into a route the people can travel.
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