What Does Isaiah 19:16 Mean in the King James?
In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
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 LORD’s moving hand turns Egypt’s apparent strength into trembling and dread.
THE MEANING
The verse names a moment when a power that seems settled becomes unsteady beneath the LORD’s hand. Its terror is both bodily trembling and fear that takes hold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that visible power cannot be shaken gives way here: Egypt trembles when the LORD’s hand moves over it.
THE ROOT
תְּנוּפַת
tenufat
GROWS FROM
נוף
n-w-p
To wave, lift, or brandish.
“shaking” in this verse is tenufat. The hand’s motion is active and visible: it is waved over Egypt, and that movement brings the nation to trembling. The same root also names something lifted and waved before the LORD, so the word holds a gesture of presentation as well as force.
ALSO GROWS
tenufah: A wave offering; something lifted and waved before the LORD.
תְּנוּפָה
The shared root links the hand’s waving motion here with an offering waved before the LORD.
henif: He waved or lifted.
הֵנִיף
This verb uses the same root for the LORD’s hand-waving in Isaiah 11:15, where the hand moves over the river.
וְחָרְדוּ
vecharadu
GROWS FROM
חרד
ḥ-r-d
To tremble, quake, or be terrified.
“afraid” in this verse is vecharadu. The first response is not only an inner feeling: the word pictures the body trembling. Paired with the following word for fear, it gives the verse two dimensions of terror, shaking and dread.
ALSO GROWS
charadah: Trembling or terror.
חֲרָדָה
This noun names the bodily disturbance contained in the verb used for Egypt’s response.
chared: One who trembles or is afraid.
חָרֵד
The related form describes a person marked by trembling, making fear a visible state as well as an inward one.
THE PATTERN
When the LORD’s action meets what appears secure, even great power gives way to trembling.
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.THE THREAD
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.Both verses use נוף (n-w-p), “to wave or lift,” for the LORD’s hand moving over Egypt’s waters. Isaiah 11:15 makes the shared image plain: the hand’s motion is part of how the waters themselves are made passable.
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