What Does Isaiah 65:18 Mean?
But leap and spin, age upon age, in what I have created. For behold, I have created Jerusalem as a leaping, and her people as joy.
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
But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.THE KEY
The opening “be glad” and “rejoice” return as the very nature of Jerusalem and her people: the joy you are called into is what is being created.
THE MEANING
You are addressed inside a joy that does not depend on manufacturing the right mood: gladness is the shape of the world being created. Jerusalem is made rejoicing, and her people are made joy, so delight belongs to their shared life. The verse presents joy as part of what is brought into being, not merely a feeling summoned on command.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that joy is only a feeling you must produce on your own is undone: here it is the nature of the place and people God creates.
THE ROOT
גילה
gilah
GROWS FROM
גיל
gil
to rejoice, exult
“spin” in this verse is gilah. The opening call to “rejoice” and the description of Jerusalem as “a rejoicing” grow from the same root. English separates an action from a quality; Hebrew lets Jerusalem carry the very root of rejoicing.
ALSO GROWS
vegilu: and rejoice
וְגִילוּ
This is the opening call in the verse, sharing its root with Jerusalem’s description as a rejoicing.
vegalti: and I will rejoice
וְגַלְתִּי
In Isaiah 65:19, the speaker rejoices in Jerusalem, turning the city’s name as rejoicing into a lived response.
משוש
masos
GROWS FROM
שוש
sus
to rejoice, be glad
“leap” in this verse is masos. The opening “be glad” and the closing “joy” share this root. The people’s joy is not separate from the gladness the verse calls forth; both branch from the same seed.
ALSO GROWS
sisu: be glad; rejoice
שִׂישׂוּ
This opening form shares its root with the joy named as the nature of Jerusalem’s people.
sason: gladness; joy
שָׂשׂוֹן
This related noun carries the same root into Isaiah 51:3, where joy and gladness are found in restored Zion.
בורא
bore
GROWS FROM
ברא
bara
to create, bring forth
The verse says “I create” twice, then names what is created through its character: Jerusalem is rejoicing and her people are joy. Joy is part of the form of this creation, not an emotion added afterward.
ALSO GROWS
nivra: is created; was created
נִבְרָא
This passive form shows the other side of the creating in the verse: what is brought forth receives its being.
beri'ah: creation
בְּרִיאָה
This noun names the work of bringing forth that the verse presents as a place and people shaped by joy.
THE PATTERN
When God renews a place and its people, joy becomes a shared condition of restored life.
For the LORD will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her dry ruins, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert plain like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving, and the voice of song.Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with a ringing cry. Then they said among the nations, The LORD has grown great in doing with these.And God wipes away every tear from their eyes, and there is no more death, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the first things have gone away.THE THREAD
And I will spin in Jerusalem and leap in my people, and the voice of weeping will no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.The two joy roots in this verse return as the speaker’s own rejoicing in Jerusalem and joy in the people. What is created as the people’s nature becomes shared delight, while weeping and crying disappear.
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