What Does Isaiah 22:10 Mean in the King James?
And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall.
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 wall gains strength by dismantling the homes it is meant to guard, in the city named for wholeness.
THE MEANING
You see a defense project whose material is its own people’s shelter: the houses are counted, then torn down to strengthen the wall. Yerushalayim (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Yerushalayim) carries shalom, wholeness, so the verse places a fractured kind of protection inside a city named for wholeness. The boundary grows stronger while the homes within it are lost.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A stronger wall automatically means a safer, more whole city; here, fortification is purchased by dismantling the homes it encloses.
THE ROOT
וַתִּתְצוּ
vattittetsu
GROWS FROM
נ־ת־ץ
n-t-ts
to tear down or demolish
“broken down” in this verse is vattittetsu. This verb names dismantling, not repairing or adding to the existing shelter. The fortification proceeds by subtraction: homes are torn down to strengthen a boundary.
ALSO GROWS
natats: tear down, demolish
נָתַץ
This is the active root form behind the verse’s direct action against the houses.
nittats: be torn down, be demolished
נִתַּץ
The passive form keeps the focus on what happens to the dwelling: it becomes the thing dismantled.
סְפַרְתֶּם
sefartem
GROWS FROM
ס־פ־ר
s-p-r
to count, recount, or relate
“numbered” in this verse is sefartem. The Hebrew root also gives words for a written account, so the houses are first made countable, then become material for the wall. Counting and demolition sit in one continuous movement: the dwellings are surveyed before they are dismantled.
ALSO GROWS
sefer: book, written record
סֵפֶר
This branch carries the root’s sense of setting things down in an account; the houses become an inventory before they become building material.
mispar: number, count
מִסְפָּר
This branch makes the verse’s act of counting explicit: each house enters the calculation of the defense.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
wholeness, completeness; to make whole
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name Yerushalayim carries shalom, wholeness, and sharpens the verse’s contradiction. The houses are dismantled to strengthen the wall, while the city’s wholeness is reduced to its boundary.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness carried in the city’s name, set against the loss of its homes.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the contrast plain: a fortified wall can be complete while the lived-in city is made less whole.
THE PATTERN
When visible defenses are treated as the source of safety, structures can multiply while the maker and wholeness of the city are neglected.
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.THE THREAD
Ye made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.The next verse keeps the construction in view: the ditch and two walls are engineered, yet the maker and fashioner goes unregarded. It exposes the deeper fracture in verse 10: a city can strengthen its defenses while losing sight of what makes it whole.
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