What Does Isaiah 2:10 Mean in the King James?
Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
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 root for hiding also forms a word for hidden treasure, making the descent into rock and dust an image of what is concealed beneath the surface before the LORD’s majesty.
THE MEANING
The reader stands before the LORD’s majesty with the instinct to disappear into rock and dust. The verse lets fear remain fear: the concealed place is sought because the divine presence is overwhelming.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that human status or strength can keep a person untouched before the LORD’s majesty.
THE ROOT
הִטָּמֵן
hittāmēn
GROWS FROM
טמן
To hide, conceal, or bury.
“hide thee” in this verse is hittāmēn. The verse’s form, הִטָּמֵן (hittāmēn, hide yourself), comes from טמן (ṭ-m-n, hide or bury); one branch, מַטְמוֹן (maṭmôn), means a hidden treasure. This word family holds concealment and what is laid away beneath a surface together, making the refuge in rock and dust an image of the self being covered over.
ALSO GROWS
ṭāmûn: Hidden, concealed.
טָמוּן
This branch shares the root’s consonants and names the state of being hidden that the verse’s command seeks.
maṭmôn: A hidden treasure or hoard.
מַטְמוֹן
This word shares the root’s consonants and shows that what is buried is concealed beneath the surface, not necessarily erased.
THE PATTERN
When divine majesty confronts human beings, they seek cover in the created world.
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:THE THREAD
When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.Joshua 7:21 uses the same root טמן (ṭ-m-n, hide or bury) for goods concealed in the earth. The shared seed links a hidden hoard with the reader’s urge to disappear beneath rock and dust before the LORD’s majesty.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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