What Does Isaiah 24:5 Mean in the King James?
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
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 earth bears the rupture its inhabitants create when they cross instruction, revise boundaries, and make covenant void.
THE MEANING
The ground beneath you carries the mark of how people live on it. The verse links crossed instruction, altered boundaries, and a covenant made void: the shared world is wounded when the bonds meant to hold it are treated as disposable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a breach stays private: the land itself bears what its inhabitants break between them.
THE ROOT
הֵפֵרוּ
heferu
GROWS FROM
פרר
parar
To break, frustrate, or annul.
The Hebrew verb carries the force of making something void, adding a sense of annulment to the English word “broken.” The covenant is not merely damaged; it is rendered ineffective.
ALSO GROWS
mephēr: One who breaks or annuls.
מֵפֵר
This form keeps the focus on the person whose action makes a bond ineffective.
hafarah: Annulment or breaking.
הֲפָרָה
It makes visible the force carried by “broken”: a bond can be actively nullified.
תּוֹרוֹת
torot
GROWS FROM
ירה
yarah
To point, direct, or instruct.
The word translated “laws” also carries the sense of instruction: something that points a way. The verse describes people crossing that direction, changing the ordinance, and voiding the covenant in one connected movement.
ALSO GROWS
torah: Instruction.
תּוֹרָה
This singular form shows the guiding sense within the plural word in the verse.
moreh: Teacher or instructor.
מוֹרֶה
This branch names one who points or directs, echoing the guidance the instruction provides.
עָבְרוּ
avaru
GROWS FROM
עבר
avar
To cross over or pass beyond.
The Hebrew gives “transgressed” a physical image: a boundary is crossed over, not merely missed. Beside instruction, altered ordinance, and annulled covenant, the verb makes the rupture feel like crossing past what holds shared life together.
ALSO GROWS
ever: The other side or region beyond.
עֵבֶר
This branch preserves the spatial sense of passing across to what lies beyond.
ma'avar: A crossing or passage.
מַעֲבָר
It makes the root’s movement concrete: a passage from one side to another.
THE PATTERN
When people undo the bonds and boundaries that sustain life, the land and the whole creation bear the rupture.
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.THE THREAD
They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.Jeremiah’s “have broken” uses the same Hebrew verb from the root פרר (parar) as Isaiah’s “broken.” The shared verb makes clear that the covenant is being made void, opening Isaiah’s link between human rupture and the earth beneath its inhabitants.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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