What Does Isaiah 62:5 Mean?
For as a young man takes a virgin as his own, so shall your sons take you as their own; and as the bridegroom leaps for the bride, so shall your God leap for you.
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
For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.THE KEY
The bridegroom’s joy and God’s joy share one Hebrew root, making divine delight over you as intimate and vivid as a wedding celebration.
THE MEANING
The verse pictures you as a bride whose union is celebrated and as a beloved over whom God rejoices. Its repeated language of joy makes that delight direct and personal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God merely tolerates you, without delight in you, gives way to this verse’s image of God rejoicing over you.
THE ROOT
יָשִׂישׂ
yasis
GROWS FROM
שׂוּשׂ
sus
To exult, rejoice.
“leaps for” in this verse is yasis. The bridegroom’s rejoicing and God’s rejoicing come from the same root. The Hebrew echoes one joy through both images, joining wedding celebration to God’s delight over you.
ALSO GROWS
sason: Gladness, exultation.
שָׂשׂוֹן
This related noun shows the root can name joy itself, not only the act of rejoicing.
mesos: Rejoicing, delight.
מְשׂוֹשׂ
This is the form used for the bridegroom’s rejoicing, echoing the root in God’s rejoicing later in the verse.
יִבְעַל
yiv’al
GROWS FROM
בעל
ba’al
To be a husband or master; to marry or possess.
“takes as his own” in this verse is yiv’al. The marriage verb belongs to the same word-family as husband and master, giving the image a sense of established bond and belonging. The verse then voices that bond as rejoicing.
ALSO GROWS
ba’al: Husband, master, or lord.
בַּעַל
This related noun shows the broader range carried by the marriage verb in the verse.
be’ulah: Married woman, wife.
בְּעוּלָה
This branch names a woman within the bond described by the verb.
חָתָן
ḥatan
GROWS FROM
חתן
ḥ-t-n
To form a marriage relationship or become related by marriage.
The word-family around bridegroom also names in-law relationships. Its language carries marriage into kinship: the image is a bond that joins lives and families.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoten: Father-in-law.
חֹתֵן
This related word names a family relationship created through marriage.
hitḥatten: To intermarry or become related by marriage.
הִתְחַתֵּן
This verb makes explicit the wider kinship carried by the bridegroom’s word-family.
THE PATTERN
Restoration is pictured as belonging met by exuberant delight.
The LORD your God is within you, the mighty one; he will deliver; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will hush in his love; he will exult over you with a ringing cry.For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he dresses the bowed ones in deliverance.We were bound to be glad and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead, and is living again; he had lost his way, and is found."THE THREAD
The LORD your God is within you, the mighty one; he will deliver; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will hush in his love; he will exult over you with a ringing cry.The same Hebrew joy-root appears in Isaiah 62:5’s bridegroom rejoicing and God rejoicing, then again in Zephaniah’s promise that God rejoices over you. Zephaniah makes the delight vivid as singing directed toward you.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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