What Does Isaiah 8:17 Mean?
And I will wait for the LORD, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
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 I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.THE KEY
The verse places expectation inside concealment: the LORD’s hidden face does not end the speaker’s looking for him.
THE MEANING
The verse lets you name the experience of God’s face feeling concealed without pretending that concealment is closeness. The speaker keeps waiting and looking toward the LORD while the face remains hidden. Hope here still has an object, even when that object is not seen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a hidden face means the relationship is over: the speaker continues to wait and expect the LORD while naming the concealment plainly.
THE ROOT
וְקִוֵּיתִי
ve-qivveti
GROWS FROM
קוה
To wait for with expectation; to hope.
The word rendered “look for” carries the sense of waiting with expectation. It gives the verse a directed hope: the LORD’s face is hidden, yet the speaker’s attention remains turned toward him.
ALSO GROWS
tiqvah: Hope, expectation.
תִּקְוָה
This noun from the same root shows that the speaker’s looking belongs to hope, not to aimless waiting.
qovey: Those who wait for or hope in someone.
קֹוֵי
Isaiah 40:31 uses this form for those who wait on the LORD, echoing the same expectation directed toward him.
הַמַּסְתִּיר
hamastir
GROWS FROM
סתר
To hide, conceal, or keep out of sight.
“hides his face” in this verse is hamastir. This root names concealment as an active condition: the LORD is experienced as hiding his face from the house of Jacob. The speaker’s waiting does not erase that tension or pretend the face is visible.
ALSO GROWS
seter: A hiding place; something secret.
סֵתֶר
This noun keeps the root’s sense of hiddenness concrete: what is concealed remains out of sight.
nistar: Hidden, concealed.
נִסְתָּר
The adjective describes what cannot be seen, matching the verse’s plain account of the hidden face.
THE PATTERN
Hope remains directed toward God while his presence or the awaited outcome is not yet visible.
I stretch myself taut for the LORD, my living soul stretches taut, and in his word I hope.Be stretched toward the LORD; hold fast, and he makes your heart firm; be stretched toward the LORD.But if we hope for what we do not see, then we wait for it by bearing up under it.THE THREAD
Be stretched toward the LORD; hold fast, and he makes your heart firm; be stretched toward the LORD.Isaiah’s word translated “look for” shares its root with Psalm 27’s “Wait.” Psalm 27 makes the same posture explicit: expectation continues toward the LORD even before the answer is visible.
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