What Does Isaiah 19:11 Mean in the King James?
Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
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
“Counsellors” and “counsel” share one Hebrew root, so the advice itself exposes whether the claim to wisdom is true.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the gap between the wisdom you claim and the judgment your counsel carries. A title, inheritance, or closeness to authority cannot make poor counsel wise. The words turn the claim back upon its speaker: the advice reveals what the label conceals.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“I must be wise because I come from a wise line or stand near power.” The verse makes present counsel the measure; inherited status cannot supply discernment.
THE ROOT
יוֹעֲצֵי
yoatse
GROWS FROM
יעץ
yaats
To advise or provide counsel.
Both “counsellors” and “counsel” grow from יעץ, the root for advising. The line tests the advisers by the advice itself: their title and their output belong to the same verbal family, and the output exposes the contradiction.
ALSO GROWS
yaats: To advise or counsel.
יָעַץ
The verb names the act these men claim to perform.
etsah: Counsel, advice, or a plan.
עֵצָה
This is the counsel their claim to wisdom must answer for.
yoets: An adviser or counsellor.
יוֹעֵץ
This singular form makes the shared root between the advisers and their counsel visible.
נִבְעָרָה
niv'arah
GROWS FROM
בער
ba'ar
To burn or consume; in a related usage, to become senseless or brutish.
The verb rendered “brutish” comes from the root also used for burning or consuming, and the same word family can describe senselessness. The counsel is presented as judgment consumed: the speakers’ claim remains, but their advice has lost discernment.
ALSO GROWS
ba'ar: To burn or consume.
בָּעַר
This sense adds the image of counsel consumed of its sound judgment.
ba'ar: Brutish or senseless.
בַּעַר
This usage gives the verse’s direct description of the counsel.
THE PATTERN
A claim to wisdom is exposed or confirmed by the counsel it produces, not by its title or lineage.
Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?THE THREAD
Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God:Exodus uses the same root, יעץ (yaats), as Isaiah’s “counsellors” and “counsel.” Here counsel is offered to help Moses carry the people’s cases, sharpening Isaiah’s question: the word is not the credential; what the counsel does reveals the counsellor.
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