What Does Isaiah 10:4 Mean in the King James?
Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
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The final “still” marks an active judgment: the anger has not turned back, and the hand has not withdrawn.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now wherever power denies the vulnerable justice: those responsible fall beneath the bound and among the slain. God’s anger has not turned back, and his hand remains extended; the reckoning is still active.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that the passage of time alone means injustice has been judged or withdrawn.
THE ROOT
שָׁב
shav
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
shuv
turn, return, turn back
“turned away” in this verse is shav. The verse says the anger has not turned back; its language is about direction, not just duration. The same root can describe returning or restoring, so the line makes clear that no reversal has happened.
ALSO GROWS
yashuv: he or it will return
יָשׁוּב
This form makes the shared sense of turning or returning audible in the verse’s claim that the anger has not turned back.
yeshovev: he restores or brings back
יְשׁוֹבֵב
The same root can describe restoration; here, the verse says that return has not yet come.
אָסִיר
asir
GROWS FROM
אָסַר
asar
bind, tie up
“prisoners” in this verse is asir. The Hebrew word for prisoner keeps the binding visible: these are bound people. The powerful falling beneath them is an inversion of the order that had kept people bound.
ALSO GROWS
asur: bound, confined
אָסוּר
This form makes the binding inside “prisoner” explicit.
asurim: bound people, prisoners
אֲסוּרִים
Psalm 146:7 uses this same-root word for the prisoners the LORD releases, sharpening the contrast with those who fall beneath them here.
THE PATTERN
Unanswered injustice does not disappear with time; judgment remains active and can accumulate.
The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;THE THREAD
Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners:Isaiah’s אָסִיר (asir, prisoner or bound one) grows from אָסַר (asar, bind); Psalm 146 uses אֲסוּרִים (asurim, bound ones) from the same root. Here the bound stand beneath a collapsing power; there, the LORD releases them.
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