What Does Isaiah 15:8 Mean in the King James?
For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beer-elim.
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 verb makes Moab’s cry encircle its border, leaving no edge of the land outside its reach.
THE MEANING
You hear grief filling a whole people’s world: the cry circles Moab’s border and the howling reaches from Eglaim to Beer-elim. The repeated wail leaves no silent edge in the landscape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that calamity stays confined to one corner of a people’s world dissolves here: the cry reaches around the border and to both named places.
THE ROOT
הִקִּיפָה
hiqqifah
GROWS FROM
נקף
n-q-p
To go around, encircle, or encompass.
“gone round about” in this verse is hiqqifah. The verb pictures the cry enclosing Moab’s border, not merely passing through the land. Grief becomes a sound that reaches the whole perimeter.
ALSO GROWS
naqaf: Go around or circle.
נָקַף
This basic form carries the circling motion that gives the verse its image of a cry moving around the land.
hiqqif: Surround or encompass.
הִקִּיף
This related verb form makes the cry an enclosing force around Moab’s border.
יִלְלָתָהּ
yelalatah
GROWS FROM
ילל
y-l-l
To howl or wail aloud.
“howling thereof” in this verse is yelalatah. The same word for wailing is repeated at both named endpoints. The repeated sound turns the distance from Eglaim to Beer-elim into one landscape of lament.
ALSO GROWS
yalal: To howl or wail.
יָלַל
The verb gives the raw sound beneath the verse’s repeated howling.
yelalah: A howl or wail.
יַלְלָה
The noun names the lament heard at each endpoint of the territory.
THE PATTERN
A people’s distress announces its reach by becoming a cry that fills its shared landscape.
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.THE THREAD
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;Isaiah’s צְעָקָה (tse’aqah, outcry) and Exodus’s צַעֲקָתָם (tse’aqatam, their outcry) share the root צעק, a cry raised under pressure. Here that cry encircles a land; in Exodus it is heard alongside the people’s affliction.
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