What Does Isaiah 19:15 Mean in the King James?

Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

Isaiah 19:15 · KJV

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 verse reaches beyond failed leaders: the Hebrew repeats the root for “work” and “may do,” until even the capacity to act disappears.

THE MEANING

This verse names constriction as a condition where activity fails across the whole range, from head to tail, branch to rush. No rank or part can bring forth a deed. The collapse reaches the doing itself.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that a capable leader or one strong part can keep a constricted whole functioning.

THE ROOT

מַעֲשֶׂה

maʿaseh

GROWS FROM

עָשָׂה

ʿasah

To do, make, or bring about.

The verse sets ⁨מַעֲשֶׂה⁩ (maʿaseh, work or deed) beside ⁨יַעֲשֶׂה⁩ (yaʿaseh, may do); both grow from ⁨עָשָׂה⁩ (ʿasah, do or make). The line says there is no work anyone can do, the shared root makes the failure reach the act itself.

ALSO GROWS

yaʿaseh: May do or make

יַעֲשֶׂה

This verb appears in the verse, repeating the root of “work” and showing that no one can bring a deed about.

ʿoseh: One who does or makes

עֹשֶׂה

The word evokes the doer as well as the deed: neither the capacity nor the one acting can produce the work.

מִצְרַיִם

Mitzrayim

GROWS FROM

צָרַר

tsarar

To press in, bind, or constrain. The name is read through ⁨צַר⁩ (tsar, narrow) and the dual ending ⁨־ַיִם⁩ (-ayim, two), carrying the image of two narrows.

Mitzrayim (⁨מִצְרַיִם⁩, Egypt) holds the image of constriction. Here that narrowness reaches every level and form named in the verse, until none can act.

ALSO GROWS

tsar: Narrow, tight, constricted

צַר

This root image reveals Egypt as a state of narrowness that leaves no room for action.

metsar: A strait or narrow place

מֵצַר

A strait gives the image of being pressed into a confined passage, matching the verse’s total loss of capacity.

THE PATTERN

When the source of capacity fails, neither position nor effort can produce what the whole system lacks.

Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.

Isaiah 9:14 · KJVThe same head-and-tail, branch-and-rush sequence reaches from the highest part to the lowest in a single sweep.

A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Psalm 127:1 · KJVEven effort and vigilance come to nothing when the sustaining source is absent.

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

John 15:5 · KJVThe verse names the same limit directly: action cannot produce fruit when its source is cut off.

THE THREAD

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.

Isaiah 19:14 · KJV

“Work” in both verses comes from ⁨עָשָׂה⁩ (ʿasah, do or make). Verse 14 shows Egypt’s work wandering off course; verse 15 carries that root into a sharper conclusion: no work can be done at all.

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