What Does Isaiah 15:6 Mean in the King James?
For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.
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 word behind “withered” shares its root with “dry land,” joining the loss of green to the ground left when water withdraws.
THE MEANING
The waters are desolate, the hay dries, the grass comes to its end, and no green remains. The verse speaks to the present moment when what sustains visible life is gone and even its smallest sign has disappeared.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the assurance that devastation always leaves some visible sign of life: here, there is no green thing.
THE ROOT
יָבֵשׁ
yāvēš
GROWS FROM
יבש
Be dry; wither.
The root behind “withered” also names dry land, so the same word family links water’s withdrawal with the loss of green. Hebrew’s shared root lets the scene move from exposed ground to vegetation drying out.
ALSO GROWS
yabbāšāh: Dry land
יַבָּשָׁה
Genesis 1:9 uses this word for the ground that appears as the waters gather, connecting Isaiah’s withering to the same vocabulary of water and dryness.
hôvîš: To dry up; cause to wither
הוֹבִישׁ
This causative form makes the drying active: the root can describe both becoming dry and bringing something to that condition.
THE PATTERN
Visible flourishing depends on what sustains it; when water and nourishment fail, green life withers.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.THE THREAD
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.The Hebrew root יבש (y-b-sh, “be dry”) behind “withered” also forms יַבָּשָׁה (yabbāšāh, “dry land”) in Genesis 1:9. There, dry ground appears as the waters gather; here, that same root reaches the grass as its green disappears.
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