What Does Isaiah 13:18 Mean in the King James?
Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.
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 Hebrew root behind “pity” also forms the word for “womb,” setting withheld compassion beside the image of life-bearing.
THE MEANING
The violence here reaches beyond armed young men: it refuses pity for the fruit of the womb and spares no child. The Hebrew word for “pity” belongs to the root that also forms “womb” and “compassion,” setting withheld tenderness beside the image of life-bearing. The verse speaks plainly about harm that does not stop before the most vulnerable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It breaks the comforting belief that innocence itself guarantees protection: here, children are explicitly within the violence.
THE ROOT
יְרַחֵמוּ
yeraḥemu
GROWS FROM
רחם
To have or show compassion; this root family also forms the word for womb.
The verb יְרַחֵמוּ (yeraḥemu, “they show compassion”) belongs to the same root as רֶחֶם (rechem, “womb”), though this verse uses בֶּטֶן (beten, “belly” or “womb”) in “fruit of the womb.” That echo sets the refusal of pity beside the image of life-bearing, a connection English leaves between separate words.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: Womb
רֶחֶם
This word shares the root of “pity”; its echo beside the verse’s image of the womb makes the refusal of compassion especially stark.
rachamim: Compassion
רַחֲמִים
This branch makes clear that “pity” belongs to the same word family as compassion, which the verse says is withheld.
rachum: Compassionate
רַחוּם
This related form names a quality the verse’s attackers do not show toward children.
THE PATTERN
Compassion becomes visible in care for vulnerable life, while violence is revealed by its refusal to spare it.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,THE THREAD
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.Isaiah 13:18 says the attackers show no pity; Isaiah 49:15 asks whether a mother could fail to show compassion to her child, then makes that bond a measure of what will not be forgotten. The compassion verb comes from the root that also forms the Hebrew word for “womb,” bringing the shared language of tenderness into view.
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