What Does Isaiah 26:20 Mean in the King James?
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
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 refuge is real, and the indignation has an ending: it passes.
THE MEANING
You are invited into a space where you can close the door and remain hidden while danger moves past. The shelter is real, and so is the indignation; the verse gives its duration a boundary: a little moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that there is no shelter while danger is active: here, concealment itself becomes refuge for the interval.
THE ROOT
יַעֲבֹר
yaʿăvōr
GROWS FROM
עבר
To cross, pass over, or go through.
“be overpast” in this verse is yaʿăvōr. The verse describes indignation with a verb of passing: it moves through time and reaches an end. The English “overpast” retains that movement, while the Hebrew root also connects it to crossing over to what lies beyond.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: To pass, cross, or go through.
עָבַר
This is the verb’s basic movement; the indignation is something that passes.
ʿēver: The far side, beyond, or across.
עֵבֶר
The same root names what lies beyond a crossing, giving the verse’s waiting a far side.
וּסְגֹר
ûsĕgōr
GROWS FROM
סגר
To shut, close, or enclose.
The shut door is more than a barrier: it makes an enclosed space in which the people can remain out of sight while danger passes. The same root can also describe handing someone over, so enclosure can shelter or confine according to who controls it.
ALSO GROWS
sāgar: To shut or close.
סָגַר
This is the root’s direct sense in the command to close the doors.
hisgîr: To hand over or surrender someone.
הִסְגִּיר
This causative form shows another consequence of being closed in: enclosure can place someone in another’s control.
חֲבִי
ḥăḇî
GROWS FROM
חבא
To hide or conceal oneself.
“hide thyself” in this verse is ḥăḇî. The Hebrew presents hiding as an action, not as vanishing: the person remains, but is concealed from view. That fits the verse’s brief interval, the people are kept out of sight until the danger has passed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāḇāʾ: To hide or conceal oneself.
חָבָא
This is the root behind the command to hide within the chambers.
neḥbāʾ: To be hidden or concealed.
נֶחְבָּא
This form shows the state that follows the act: present, but out of view.
THE PATTERN
An enclosed space can shelter what is hidden while danger or exposure remains outside.
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.THE THREAD
And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.Isaiah tells the people to shut their doors; in Genesis, the LORD shuts Noah in. The shared root סגר (sāgar), “to shut or enclose,” links both acts of refuge, while the one doing the closing changes.
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