What Does Isaiah 2:16 Mean in the King James?
And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
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 “pleasant pictures” are desirable things, so the verse places what draws human desire among the things the LORD brings low.
THE MEANING
Even the ships you see as impressive and the things you prize for their beauty fall within the LORD’s humbling. Their distance, splendor, or desirability does not make them untouchable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that what is beautiful, costly, or beyond reach can stand outside the LORD’s reckoning.
THE ROOT
הַחֲמֻדּוֹת
haḥamudot
GROWS FROM
חמד
ḥ-m-d
To desire, take pleasure in, or covet.
The Hebrew behind “pleasant” comes from the root of desire and coveting, so the phrase names things that draw desire, not merely things that look nice. The verse places what is coveted among the things brought low, showing how desirability can become part of human pride.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmad: To desire or covet.
חָמַד
This verb shares the root in “pleasant,” revealing the desire beneath the things the verse describes.
maḥmād: A desirable or precious thing.
מַחְמָד
This noun names an object by the desire it attracts, echoing the verse’s “pleasant pictures.”
THE PATTERN
Human pride and the heights it builds are brought low, while the LORD alone is exalted.
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.THE THREAD
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.The word translated “covet” comes from the same root, חמד, as “pleasant” in Isaiah 2:16. One verse names desire fastening onto what belongs to another; the other places desirable things among the objects brought low.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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