What Does Isaiah 26:3 Mean in the King James?
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
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 “perfect peace” is literally “wholeness, wholeness”, a doubled wholeness God guards for the mind that rests in God.
THE MEANING
Your inner formation rests on God, and God guards you in wholeness upon wholeness. Trust here carries a sense of security, so this peace is both held by God and grounded in a mind leaning on God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that peace comes only from mastering your thoughts: the mind rests in trust, and God keeps it in wholeness.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם שָׁלוֹם
shalom shalom
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be whole, complete, or sound.
The Hebrew repeats shalom where the KJV says “perfect peace”; “perfect” is not a separate modifier but the doubling itself. This root family carries both completeness and making good, so the verse speaks of wholeness held at full measure.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It shows that shalom reaches beyond quiet to a condition made whole.
shillem: To make good, repay, or restore
שִׁלֵּם
It links wholeness with what is made right or restored.
יֵצֶר
yetzer
GROWS FROM
יצר
y-ts-r
To form, shape, or fashion.
The word translated “mind” is yetzer, a formed inclination or inner formation. The verse pictures this formation resting toward God: it is not an empty mind, but an orientation taking shape.
ALSO GROWS
yatsar: To form or fashion
יָצַר
It makes the mind’s “staying” an orientation that has been formed.
yotser: Former, potter
יוֹצֵר
It carries the root’s image of something shaped, illuminating the formed quality of yetzer.
בָּטוּחַ
batuach
GROWS FROM
בטח
b-t-ḥ
To trust, feel secure, or be confident.
“trusteth” in this verse is batuach. This root joins trust with security. The verse describes a mind supported by a trust that rests in God as its place of safety.
ALSO GROWS
batach: To trust or feel secure
בָּטַח
It names the trust that the verse gives as the ground of the mind’s rest.
betach: Security, safety
בֶּטַח
It reveals the settled safety carried within the word translated “trusteth.”
THE PATTERN
Wholeness is guarded where the inner life rests its trust in God.
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.THE THREAD
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.The Hebrew word translated “trusting” comes from בָּטַח (batach, trust or feel secure), the same root as Isaiah’s “trusteth.” Psalm 112 pairs that trust with a firm heart, showing the settled security alongside Isaiah’s doubled wholeness.
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