What Does Isaiah 65:24 Mean?
And it shall be, before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear and respond.
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
And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.THE KEY
The verse places the answer before the call and the hearing before the words are finished.
THE MEANING
Your request does not create the moment of hearing. You are met before you call, and you are heard while your sentence is still unfolding.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must finish the right words before you can be heard. Here, listening is already present within your unfinished sentence.
THE ROOT
אֶעֱנֶה
ʾeʿĕneh
GROWS FROM
ענה
Answer, respond
The root names an answering response; the striking force comes from the sentence’s timing, which places that response before the call. Your words do not have to initiate the answer.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānāh: Answer, respond
עָנָה
This is the verb’s basic form: an answer is an active response.
maʿăneh: Answer, response
מַעֲנֶה
The noun carries the same root into the response itself, making the verse’s answer a present reality before the call.
אֶשְׁמָע
ʾešmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed
“I will hear and respond” in this verse is ʾešmaʿ. The hearing begins while you are still speaking, not only after you have completed your words. This root can carry the sense of attentive heeding, giving the verse’s hearing an active quality.
ALSO GROWS
šĕmaʿ: Hear and respond
שְׁמַע
The familiar imperative shows that hearing can include a response, echoing the verse’s answer-and-hearing sequence.
šĕmūʿāh: Report, tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is what has been heard and received; here, hearing is already underway before the speech is complete.
יִקְרָאוּ
yiqreʾu
GROWS FROM
קרא
Call, proclaim, read aloud
This root can describe calling out, proclaiming, or reading aloud: voiced words reaching outward. The verse places the answer ahead of that voiced call, then shows hearing already present as speech continues.
ALSO GROWS
qārāʾ: Call, proclaim, read aloud
קָרָא
The verb makes clear that the call is an act of putting words into the open.
miqrāʾ: Assembly, convocation; reading or proclamation
מִקְרָא
This branch connects the act of calling with words spoken or read among people.
THE PATTERN
The response is already present before the request is fully voiced.
For there is no word on my tongue; behold, LORD, you perceive all of it.So do not become like them, for your Father knows what you have need of before you ask him.Lord, all my longing lies open before you, and my groaning is not hidden from you.THE THREAD
Then you shall call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the stretching of the finger, and speaking emptiness.This verse joins the same Hebrew roots for “call” (קרא, qaraʾ) and “answer” (ענה, ʿanah). Isaiah 65:24 draws that interval inward: the answer arrives before the call, and hearing begins before speech ends.
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