What Does Isaiah 8:14 Mean?
And he shall be for a set-apart place; but for a stone of striking and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to those who settle in Jerusalem.
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 he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.THE KEY
The verse names the same presence as both sanctuary and snare: refuge does not erase the danger of being tripped and caught.
THE MEANING
The one who is sanctuary is also a stone that trips and a snare that catches; the verse holds refuge and danger together. It speaks now as a warning that closeness to a sacred place or community does not guarantee invulnerability. Its images keep the prospect of being tripped and caught fully in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that divine presence can only shelter or comfort: this verse also names it as a stumbling block and a snare.
THE ROOT
מִקְדָּשׁ
miqdāsh
GROWS FROM
ק-ד-שׁ
q-d-sh
Set apart; sacred.
“set-apart place” in this verse is miqdāsh. The English word can suggest a protected place alone, while the root carries the sense of being set apart. Here that set-apartness names refuge, even as the verse’s parallel images refuse to reduce it to comfort.
ALSO GROWS
qādash: To set apart, consecrate.
קָדַשׁ
The verb shows the action beneath the sanctuary: it is marked off as set apart.
qōdesh: Set-apartness, holiness.
קֹדֶשׁ
This noun shares the sanctuary’s root and reveals that the refuge is bound to what is set apart.
מִכְשׁוֹל
mikshol
GROWS FROM
כ-ש-ל
k-sh-l
To stumble, falter, or fall.
“rock of stumbling” in this verse is mikshol. The word translated “offence” carries the image of an obstacle in the path that makes someone fall, not merely an insult. The root gives the rock a physical force: it interrupts movement and brings a person down.
ALSO GROWS
kāshal: To stumble, falter, or fall.
כָּשַׁל
The verb names what happens when the obstacle in the verse is encountered.
mikshol: A stumbling block or obstacle.
מִכְשׁוֹל
This noun makes the cause of the fall concrete: something in the path that trips the walker.
מוֹקֵשׁ
mōqēsh
GROWS FROM
י-ק-שׁ
y-q-sh
To ensnare or catch in a trap.
“trap” in this verse is mōqēsh. The snare adds another kind of danger to the stumbling stone: not only a fall in the open, but capture. The verse moves from refuge to collision to entrapment, making its final image difficult to soften.
ALSO GROWS
mōqēsh: A snare or trap.
מוֹקֵשׁ
This is the verse’s image of being caught, extending the danger beyond a stumble.
yāqōsh: To lay a snare or trap.
יָקֹשׁ
The related verb shows the catching action carried by the noun.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents the same rock or stone as refuge and foundation for trust, yet also as a point of stumbling.
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I shelter; my shield, and the horn of my deliverance, and my high place.Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a weighty cornerstone, a foundation set firm. The one who leans his weight will not hurry.But we herald the Anointed One, crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to the nations.THE THREAD
And a stone to strike against, and a rock that springs the trap, to those who strike against the word and will not yield, and to this they were also set.This verse repeats Isaiah’s paired images of the stumbling stone and the offending rock, making the connection explicit. It carries Isaiah’s architecture forward: the same stone that can serve as a foundation can also become the point where a person falls.
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