What Does Isaiah 16:7 Mean in the King James?
Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kir-hareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken.
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 collapse turns grief back upon its own name: Moab howls for Moab.
THE MEANING
The repeated howl makes grief reverberate through the name itself: Moab cries for Moab, and every voice joins the cry. The people mourn the foundations of Kir-hareseth and those who are struck down; the loss reaches both the place and its people. Moab (מוֹאָב, Mōʾāb, “from a father”) carries its origin even as the people grieve their own name.
THE ROOT
יָלִיל
yālîl
GROWS FROM
ילל
yalal
To howl or wail.
The Hebrew repeats this howl around Moab’s name, making grief sound like an echo that spreads through the people. English gives the action, but the repeated sound makes the lament itself reverberate.
ALSO GROWS
yālal: To howl or wail.
יָלַל
The verb names the sustained cry that the verse repeats.
yelālāh: A howl or wailing.
יְלָלָה
This related noun gives the cry a recognizable form: grief voiced aloud.
תֶּהְגּוּ
tehgû
GROWS FROM
הגה
hagah
To murmur, utter softly, or moan.
The verb translated “mourn” carries the sound of a low utterance, so this grief is voiced rather than silent. The same root can describe inward musing, joining the people’s spoken lament to an inner one.
ALSO GROWS
hāgāh: To murmur, mutter, or meditate.
הָגָה
Its range joins the low sound of lament to inward thought.
hegyôn: Musing or meditation.
הֶגְיוֹן
This related noun shows that the root can name an inward utterance as well as a spoken one.
THE PATTERN
When a place and its people are brought low, their ruin becomes a shared lament voiced across the land.
In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kir-heres.And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,THE THREAD
Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kir-heres.Both verses use ילל (yalal, “to howl or wail”) and turn the cry toward Moab itself. Jeremiah’s “I will howl for Moab” lets you hear Isaiah’s repeated name not just as a place, but as the center of grief.
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