What Does Isaiah 23:6 Mean in the King James?
Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.
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 people named as dwellers are told to cross, and to carry their howl with them.
THE MEANING
You are addressed among the dwellers of the coast: cross toward Tarshish and howl. Departure and grief occupy the same line; movement does not require the cry to stop.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that you must finish grieving before you can move: the command to cross stands beside the command to howl.
THE ROOT
עִבְרוּ
ʿivru
GROWS FROM
ע־ב־ר
ʿ-b-r
To pass or cross over; to go through to the other side.
“pass over” in this verse is ʿivru. The root makes the command a crossing into elsewhere, not simply a change of feeling. The verse holds that movement beside an audible grief.
ALSO GROWS
ever: Beyond; the other side.
עֵבֶר
This keeps the direction in “pass ye over” spatial: the command points toward an elsewhere.
ma’avar: A crossing or passage.
מַעֲבָר
The crossing is itself a passage through, not merely a change of mood.
יֹשְׁבֵי
yoshevê
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ב
y-sh-b
To sit or dwell; to remain settled in a place.
“inhabitants” in this verse is yoshevê. The address names people by their settledness, then tells them to cross. The verse moves its dwellers from staying in place to departure.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit or dwell.
יָשַׁב
This verb gives the inhabitants’ title its sense of being settled in a place.
moshav: A dwelling or seat.
מוֹשָׁב
The related noun keeps a place of settlement in view as the verse commands its dwellers to leave.
הֵילִילוּ
heililu
GROWS FROM
י־ל־ל
y-l-l
To howl or wail.
The command gives grief a sound rather than asking it to disappear. Beside the crossing, the howl travels with the departure.
ALSO GROWS
yalal: To howl or wail.
יָלַל
This verb is the root expressed in the verse’s command to cry out.
yelalah: Wailing or a howl.
יְלָלָה
The noun preserves the cry as something heard, not a feeling hidden beneath the crossing.
THE PATTERN
Displacement can be spoken as movement and grief at once; crossing does not cancel the cry.
And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.THE THREAD
And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.“Passed over” translates עָבַר (ʿavar, pass or cross over), the same root as Isaiah’s “Pass ye over.” Here that crossing is heard beside loud communal weeping, making the pairing of departure and howl visible in another verse.
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