What Does Isaiah 2:8 Mean in the King James?
Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
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 hands that make an object can surrender their posture to it.
THE MEANING
The verse shows how what you make can take the place you bow to. The land is filled with these objects, and the people lower themselves before the work of their own hands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what you create must remain under your authority gives way here: the maker can become subject to the thing made.
THE ROOT
עָשׂוּ
asū
GROWS FROM
עשה
asah
to do, to make
The verse uses מַעֲשֵׂה (work) and עָשׂוּ (made), forms from the same root עשה. What the people bow to is named as the very work of their own hands: making and bowing fold back on each other.
ALSO GROWS
ma'aseh: work, deed
מַעֲשֶׂה
The object receives the name of the makers’ work, tying what they bow to directly to what they have done.
asah: to do, to make
עָשָׂה
This is the root verb behind “made”; the verse places the makers’ own action beneath the object of their bowing.
יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ
yishtachavu
GROWS FROM
שחה
shachah
to bow down, to prostrate oneself
The Hebrew word translated “worship” names the bodily act of bowing down. The verse makes the posture visible: the people lower themselves before an object fashioned by their own hands.
ALSO GROWS
shachah: to bow down
שָׁחָה
This is the root verb for the posture of lowering oneself, making the act of worship concrete in the verse.
hishtachavah: to prostrate oneself, to bow down
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
This form carries the same bowing action expressed in “worship,” linking devotion with physical posture.
THE PATTERN
What people make can take authority over them when they bow to it as though it were their source.
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.THE THREAD
And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.Isaiah 44:17 uses the same root שחה (shachah, “to bow down”) in the word translated “worshippeth.” There, the maker even asks the handmade object for deliverance, showing how a bowed posture can turn crafted work into a source of authority.
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