What Does Isaiah 23:14 Mean in the King James?
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.
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 ships’ “strength” is a stronghold: when the shelter behind prosperity is devastated, even its carriers become voices of grief.
THE MEANING
The verse gives grief a voice through the ships: their carrying power is struck because the stronghold beneath it has been devastated. It speaks wherever what once seemed able to carry everything can no longer shelter what depends on it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a powerful vessel or system can guarantee its own safety: even the stronghold can be devastated.
THE ROOT
הֵילִילוּ
hēlîlû
GROWS FROM
ילל
y-l-l
To howl or wail.
“Howl” in this verse is hēlîlû. English gives a dramatic command; the Hebrew root names the raw cry itself. The ships are pictured as mourners, so the collapse reaches even the instruments that carry prosperity.
ALSO GROWS
yelālāh: Wailing, howling.
יְלָלָה
This noun from the same root makes the ships’ cry a response to devastation, not just a figure of speech.
hēlîlû: Howl!
הֵילִילוּ
This plural command gives the ships a voice and makes their ruin audible.
מָעֻזְּכֶם
maʿuzzĕkhem
GROWS FROM
עזז
ʿ-z-z
To be strong or powerful.
Though English says “strength,” the word reaches toward מָעוֹז (maʿōz), a stronghold or refuge: it carries the sense of shelter behind power. The devastation reaches the support that made the ships’ strength seem secure.
ALSO GROWS
ʿōz: Strength, might.
עֹז
This branch names the power carried in the English word “strength.”
maʿōz: Stronghold, refuge.
מָעוֹז
This branch reveals the shelter or stronghold contained in the verse’s word for strength.
שֻׁדַּד
shuddad
GROWS FROM
שדד
sh-d-d
To devastate, despoil, or ravage.
“laid waste” in this verse is shuddad. This root names violent devastation, not simply a fading of strength. The verse presents the stronghold as ravaged, making the ships’ howl a response to a real collapse.
ALSO GROWS
shōd: Devastation, ruin, violence.
שֹׁד
This noun shows the force of the destruction that has overtaken the stronghold.
shōdēd: Destroyer, plunderer.
שׁוֹדֵד
This branch gives the root an agent of devastation, underscoring that the stronghold has been ravaged.
THE PATTERN
When a stronghold or power collapses, the people and vessels bound to it become the voice of its ruin.
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes:And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.THE THREAD
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.Isaiah 13:6 uses the same Hebrew root ילל (yalal, to howl) behind “Howl” here. The shared command makes lament the audible sign of devastation, while each verse names a different collapse.
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