What Does Isaiah 19:6 Mean in the King James?
And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
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
Withering begins upstream: the life-bearing rivers are turned away before the reeds can survive.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now in the image of a sustaining flow under collapse: the rivers are turned aside, their channels dwindle and dry, and the plants that depend on them wither. The loss moves from source to channel to visible growth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that withering begins at the surface: here the reeds are the last link in an upstream failure of flow.
THE ROOT
הֶאֶזְנִיחוּ
he'eznîḥû
GROWS FROM
זנח
Z-N-Ḥ
Reject or cast off; in this form, turn away or make foul.
“turn ... far away” in this verse is he'eznîḥû. The root can carry the sense of rejection beneath the KJV’s image of distance. The rivers are not simply low; their sustaining course is turned away, and the channels and reeds bear the consequences.
ALSO GROWS
zānaḥ: Reject or cast away.
זָנַח
Psalm 44:9 uses this root for being cast off, giving the rivers’ turning away a shade of rejection as well as distance.
he'eznîḥû: The causative form used for the rivers in this verse; the root’s range also includes making foul or causing to stink.
הֶאֱזְנִיחוּ
The action reaches the rivers themselves before the verse describes the dried channels and withering plants.
נְהָרוֹת
neharot
GROWS FROM
נהר
N-H-R
Flow or stream; the same consonants also carry the sense of shining or becoming radiant.
“rivers” in this verse is neharot. The Hebrew word for river shares its root with words for streaming and shining. English names the watercourse, while the root also carries its active movement; when that flow is cut off, the reeds lose what sustains them.
ALSO GROWS
nāhār: A river or stream.
נָהָר
Genesis 2:10 uses the same noun for the river that waters the garden.
wənāhart: Flow or stream toward something.
וְנָהַרְתְּ
Isaiah 60:5 uses this verb from the same root, making the movement within the word visible.
wənāhārû: Shone or became radiant.
וְנָהָרוּ
Psalm 34:5 uses the root for faces becoming radiant, revealing the root’s link between flowing and shining.
THE PATTERN
What grows depends on the flow that reaches it; when sustaining water is cut off, growth withers.
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.THE THREAD
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.The same Hebrew word, נהר (nahar), names the river in Genesis and the rivers in Isaiah. In Genesis the river reaches the garden and waters it; in Isaiah the rivers are turned away and the reeds wither, exposing how growth follows the movement of the water.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us