What Does Isaiah 28:13 Mean in the King James?
But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
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 repeated word is not background noise: its small measures lead into stumbling, entrapment, and capture.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word comes in small, repeated measures, and its refrain ends in backward movement, fracture, entrapment, and capture. The verse speaks with a hard edge: the word becomes a force of judgment, carrying the hearer into constriction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a word is harmless because it sounds small, simple, or repetitive dissolves here; the refrain itself leads into capture.
THE ROOT
וְנוֹקְשׁוּ
ve-noqshu
GROWS FROM
יקש
y-q-sh
To lay a snare or be ensnared.
“snared” in this verse is ve-noqshu. The Hebrew names a trap, not merely a difficulty. The snare follows the repeated refrain, turning its small measures into a path toward capture.
ALSO GROWS
moqesh: Snare, trap
מוֹקֵשׁ
The noun makes explicit the trap already present in the verb “snared.”
yaqosh: Fowler, one who traps birds
יָקוֹשׁ
This branch names the one who sets the snare, making the image of entrapment concrete.
צַו
tsav
GROWS FROM
צוה
ts-w-h
To command, charge, or appoint.
“precept” in this verse is tsav. The refrain pairs צַו (tsav, command) with קַו (qav, measuring line) in a near-rhyming Hebrew cadence. The commands and measured lines repeat in short fragments, then give way to the sequence of stumbling and capture.
ALSO GROWS
tsivvah: He commanded
צִוָּה
The verbal form shows the command contained in “precept.”
mitzvah: Commandment
מִצְוָה
The same root appears as a noun for an instruction, linking the repeated precepts to the language of command.
וְנִלְכָּדוּ
ve-nilkadu
GROWS FROM
לכד
l-k-d
To catch or capture.
“taken” in this verse is ve-nilkadu. The sequence ends in capture, beyond a passing stumble. After being snared, the hearer is held; entanglement gives way to confinement.
ALSO GROWS
lakad: To catch, capture
לָכַד
This verb is the root action named in the verse’s final word.
milkodet: Trap, snare
מִלְכֹּדֶת
The related noun links capture to the trap that holds its prey.
THE PATTERN
A word resisted can become the very route by which stumbling turns into entanglement and capture.
And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.THE THREAD
And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.The same Hebrew roots for stumbling, breaking, being snared, and being taken recur in both verses. Isaiah 8:15 opens the refrain into a full sequence: the stumble is followed by fracture, entanglement, and capture.
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