What Does Isaiah 64:9 Mean?
Do not be angry, LORD, so very much, and do not remember crookedness forever. Look, gaze now, we beg you, we are all your 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
Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.THE KEY
The plea moves from “do not remember the crookedness forever” to “look: we are all thy people,” shifting attention from the wrong to the bond.
THE MEANING
You can name the wrong without making it the final truth of your relationship with God. The verse asks that the crookedness not be kept in remembrance forever, and asks that the people themselves be seen within the bond they still name: “we are all thy people.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your wrongdoing must remain the permanent, defining truth of your relationship with God.
THE ROOT
תִּזְכֹּר
tizkor
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r: remember, call to mind, keep in remembrance.
“remember” in this verse is tizkor. The verb describes active remembrance, not simply a thought that passes through the mind. The plea asks that the crookedness no longer be kept in view forever, then turns to “behold, see” and the people themselves.
ALSO GROWS
zikkaron: remembrance; memorial
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps something present in memory, showing the active force of the root.
hizkir: mention; bring to remembrance
הִזְכִּיר
This form brings something into remembrance, echoing the verse’s concern with what is kept before God.
עָוֹן
avon
GROWS FROM
עון
ʿ-w-n: crookedness, with the guilt it carries.
The word can name both the crookedness and its guilt. The plea reaches beyond the act itself to ask that its burden not remain held in remembrance forever.
ALSO GROWS
avonot: iniquities; crooked acts
עֲוֹנוֹת
This plural form carries the same root consonants and names multiple acts of crookedness.
avono: his iniquity; his guilt
עֲוֹנוֹ
This possessive form keeps the root while showing the crookedness as someone’s burden.
THE PATTERN
Wrongdoing can be named plainly while a bond remains present and a plea asks that anger and guilt not be held forever.
He does not contend forever, nor hold his anger for the ages.Who is a God like you, who lifts away crookedness and passes over the rebellion of the remnant of his inheritance? He does not grip his anger for the ages, for he delights in faithful love.If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.THE THREAD
And God heard and responded to their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.The same Hebrew root זכר (z-k-r), meaning remember or call to mind, appears here. Isaiah asks that crookedness not remain in remembrance forever; Exodus shows covenant held in remembrance.
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