What Does Isaiah 23:3 Mean in the King James?
And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.
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
A market’s wealth begins where the market cannot claim credit: in seed made fruitful by water.
THE MEANING
The verse traces wealth through a living chain: water nourishes seed, growth becomes harvest, and harvest becomes trade among nations. What reaches the marketplace depends on sources and growth beyond its walls.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a prosperous marketplace creates its own wealth; its revenue depends on water, seed, land, and harvest before it can be traded.
THE ROOT
זֶרַע
zeraʿ
GROWS FROM
זרע
זרע (zāraʿ) means to sow or scatter seed; זֶרַע names the seed itself and, by extension, offspring.
The same consonants hold both the act of sowing and the seed, so the noun carries a process within it. Here, the market’s revenue begins as something planted and growing before it becomes harvest and trade.
ALSO GROWS
zāraʿ: to sow or scatter seed
זָרַע
It names the action that gives the verse’s seed its future harvest.
zeraʿ: seed; offspring
זֶרַע
The same word can name both what is planted and what continues to grow from it.
קְצִיר
qāṣîr
GROWS FROM
קצר
קצר (qāṣar) means to reap or cut down; קָצִיר is what is gathered by reaping.
The verse presents revenue first as a harvest: something grown and then gathered. The root keeps the act of cutting and the gathered crop in view together.
ALSO GROWS
qāṣar: to reap, cut down
קָצַר
It names the gathering action that makes the growing crop a harvest.
qōṣēr: one who reaps; reaper
קוֹצֵר
This branch shows the harvest as the result of a gathering action.
סְחַר
seḥar
GROWS FROM
סחר
סחר (sāḥar) means to trade or deal in commerce.
“mart” in this verse is seḥar. The root links the market to the merchant and the goods moving through exchange. The harvest grown at one source enters a network larger than the place that sells it.
ALSO GROWS
sōḥēr: merchant
סוֹחֵר
The merchant is the person who carries the verse’s harvest into trade.
sĕḥôrāh: merchandise; wares
סְחוֹרָה
This branch names goods as they circulate through the market.
THE PATTERN
Abundance becomes shared provision through a sequence of watering, growing, and gathering.
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.THE THREAD
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.The Hebrew verb translated “sowed,” וַיִּזְרַע (vayyizraʿ), comes from זרע (zāraʿ), “to sow,” the same root carried by Isaiah’s “seed.” Genesis shows sowing yielding abundantly; Isaiah follows that seed through harvest into the trade of nations.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us