What Does Isaiah 28:15 Mean in the King James?
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
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
A refuge made of lies does not keep death outside; it makes falsehood the shelter you live under.
THE MEANING
The verse names the confidence that a bargain with death can keep danger outside: lies become the shelter, and falsehood the place of hiding. It speaks whenever a story of safety depends on concealing what threatens it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that calling a threat manageable, or binding yourself to it, can make it a safe refuge.
THE ROOT
מַחְסֵנוּ
maḥsēnū
GROWS FROM
חסה
To seek refuge, take shelter.
The word for “refuge” here comes from the same root as the act of seeking shelter. The word itself does not make a refuge true or false: Isaiah’s shock is that the shelter is made from lies, while Psalm 46:1 uses the same refuge-word for God.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsāh: To take refuge; seek shelter.
חָסָה
The verb shows that refuge is not only a place but an act of relying on something for cover.
maḥseh: Refuge; shelter.
מַחְסֶה
This noun shares the root and appears in Psalm 46:1, where God is named as refuge, the same shelter-word set against Isaiah’s refuge of falsehood.
THE PATTERN
A shelter’s true character is revealed by what it rests on: falsehood gives the appearance of safety, while trust in God is named as refuge.
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Isaiah’s “refuge” and Psalm 46’s “refuge” share the Hebrew noun מַחְסֶה (maḥseh), from the root חָסָה (ḥāsāh), “to seek shelter.” The same word names both a shelter made of lies and God as a refuge, bringing the question of what you hide under into focus.
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