What Does Isaiah 19:14 Mean in the King James?
The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.
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 uses the same root for Egypt being led to err and for the drunk man staggering: the misdirection and the stumble are one motion.
THE MEANING
This verse puts before you a condition in which disorientation reaches every work: the whole field of action loses its bearings, like a drunk man staggering in his own vomit. It names the LORD as the one who mingles the perverse spirit within Egypt, leaving the force and severity of that agency in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that ongoing action proves sound direction: every work can continue while the whole course has gone astray.
THE ROOT
הִתְעוּ
hit'u
GROWS FROM
תעה
To wander, stray, or go off course; here, to reel.
“err / stagger” in this verse is hit'u. The Hebrew uses forms of תעה both for causing Egypt to err and for the drunken man staggering. English makes these sound like separate ideas, while the shared root reveals one motion: losing the way and losing one’s footing.
ALSO GROWS
ta'iti: I have gone astray.
תָּעִיתִי
In Psalm 119:176, the same root makes going astray a first-person condition, like the disorientation pictured here at the scale of a whole people.
to'eh: Going astray.
תֹּעֶה
In Exodus 23:4, it describes an ox straying from its way; the root carries the sense of losing direction into an ordinary, visible scene.
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
Wind or breath; moving air, and the animating presence it signifies.
The Hebrew word rendered spirit here is ruach, which also means wind and breath. The verse’s inward condition is named with a word that keeps the concrete sense of breath and moving air within it.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind or moving air.
רוּחַ
This sense keeps ruach’s concrete movement audible beneath the KJV’s rendering of spirit.
ruach: Breath.
רוּחַ
This same word can name breath, so the verse’s inward disorientation is expressed through language that also belongs to the body’s living breath.
THE PATTERN
When inner disorientation takes hold, it spreads into actions and the paths people take.
They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;THE THREAD
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for I do not forget thy commandments.Isaiah uses תעה both for Egypt being led astray and for the drunk man’s staggering. Here the same root becomes the speaker’s own words for going astray like a lost sheep, opening the image from public collapse to the felt condition of one life.
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