What Does Isaiah 16:1 Mean in the King James?
Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.
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 lamb is not merely moved: שִׁלְחוּ (shilḥu) sends it out as a release, carrying what is precious across wilderness toward Zion.
THE MEANING
The lamb is sent from Sela, through wilderness, toward the ruler at Zion. The verse makes release visible as directed movement: what leaves the hand travels toward a named center rather than vanishing into open space. Its present force rests in that passage from holding to sending.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the assumption that letting go is simply losing control: what is released can still be sent toward a particular destination.
THE ROOT
שִׁלְחוּ
shilḥu
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send, send forth, release, let go, stretch out the hand.
“Send” in this verse is shilḥu. The plural command names an act of sending, while the root also carries the sense of release: what is held leaves the hand and enters a path. That movement is echoed in the sent waters of Shiloach and in provision extended on a table.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Sent waters; the pool of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name carries the same sending-root into an image of water moving toward a destination, as the lamb is sent across the wilderness.
Shulchan: Table; a place where provision is set out and extended.
שֻׁלְחָן
This branch reveals the generous side of sending: release can carry something outward as provision, not only send it away.
THE PATTERN
What is released and sent across a threshold can become the passage through which freedom, healing, or sight arrives.
And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.THE THREAD
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.The Hebrew “sent” in this psalm and שִׁלְחוּ in Isaiah share the root שלח (shalach). Here, sending leads directly into healing and deliverance, giving the lamb’s journey toward Zion a deeper resonance: release can carry restoration.
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