What Does Isaiah 10:1 Mean in the King James?
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse reveals that trouble can be engraved into rules and fixed in writing, giving injustice the face of order.
THE MEANING
When harm is issued as an official decree, it enters the rules that shape ordinary life. The people beneath those rules bear the trouble as a burden, while the written form can make that burden look authorized.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a rule is just because it has been formally decreed or written down; writing itself can carry trouble into people’s lives.
THE ROOT
הַחֹקְקִים
haḥoqeqim
GROWS FROM
חקק
To cut or engrave; by extension, to inscribe, prescribe, or decree.
The root repeats in “those who decree decrees” (הַחֹקְקִים חִקְּקֵי, haḥoqeqim ḥiqqê), making the act and its object echo one another. Trouble is pictured as cut into a lasting rule, rather than spoken and gone.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoq: Statute, prescribed rule, or ordinance.
חֹק
This is the rule made from the same root; Psalm 94:20 places חֹק (ḥoq, statute) beside עָמָל (ʿāmāl, trouble), echoing Isaiah’s pairing.
meḥoqeq: Lawgiver or ruler.
מְחֹקֵק
The lawgiver shares the root with the decree, joining the authority that makes a rule to the act of engraving it.
מְכַתְּבִים
mekhattevim
GROWS FROM
כתב
To write or inscribe.
“write” in this verse is mekhattevim. This is a second image of inscription after the decree-root: the trouble is not left as a passing thought but rendered into writing. Together, the roots show policy and document fixing harm in place.
ALSO GROWS
ketav: Writing or script.
כְּתָב
The written form makes an idea visible and enduring, as the verse’s wrong is given a record.
mikhtav: A written message or letter.
מִכְתָּב
A written message carries words beyond the moment; here, writing gives imposed trouble a durable form.
עָמָל
ʿāmāl
GROWS FROM
עמל
Toil, labor, trouble, or oppression.
“grievousness” in this verse is ʿāmāl. This word holds toil and trouble together: the text names the wrong by the burden it creates. What is written becomes something for others to carry.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmal: To labor or toil.
עָמַל
The verb brings out the work and weariness associated with the burden imposed by the written wrong.
ʿāmāl: Toil, trouble, or oppression.
עָמָל
Psalm 94:20 uses the same word for trouble framed by a statute, closely echoing Isaiah’s picture of harm made official.
THE PATTERN
When authority administers rules, it can either preserve just judgment or turn power into a burden for others.
Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous.And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.THE THREAD
Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?Isaiah’s עָמָל (ʿāmāl, trouble) appears here beside חֹק (ḥoq, statute), from the same root family as “decree.” The psalm names in one line the mechanism Isaiah exposes: authority can frame trouble as law.
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