What Does Isaiah 14:6 Mean in the King James?
He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
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 ruler who keeps peoples under an unrelenting blow becomes the one pursued, with no one restraining it.
THE MEANING
Power here is named by its unceasing violence: peoples are struck, nations ruled in anger. Then the direction reverses; the ruler is pursued, and nobody intervenes to restrain it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that ruling through relentless violence makes a person unreachable or immune to pursuit.
THE ROOT
מֻרְדָּף
murdāf
GROWS FROM
רדף
To pursue, chase, or follow hard.
“is persecuted” in this verse is murdāf. The form here places the ruler on the receiving end of pursuit. The same Hebrew root can describe goodness and mercy pursuing someone, showing that the movement is pursuit; who is pursuing makes the difference.
ALSO GROWS
radaph: To pursue or chase.
רָדַף
This is the verb behind the ruler’s reversal: the one now pursued is caught in the same movement of pursuit.
rodef: A pursuer; one who chases.
רֹדֵף
It names the pursuing agent, making clear how the ruler’s position has changed.
מַכֶּה
makkeh
GROWS FROM
נכה
To strike or smite.
“smote / stroke” in this verse is makkeh. The word for the one striking and the word for the blow come from the same root. English separates the ruler from the damage, while Hebrew keeps the striker and the stroke bound to one seed.
ALSO GROWS
makkeh: One who strikes; striking.
מַכֶּה
It describes the ruler through the repeated action that defines his rule.
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
It names the damage produced by the striking, the continual stroke under which the peoples are kept.
THE PATTERN
The force a person sends outward can turn back and reach the one who wielded it.
His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.THE THREAD
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.The Hebrew root רדף (radaph), “pursue,” underlies both “is persecuted” here and “shall follow” in the psalm. Isaiah’s pursuit is hostile; the psalm’s pursuers are goodness and mercy, revealing one movement with different forces behind it.
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