What Does Isaiah 28:9 Mean in the King James?
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
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
Isaiah locates deep understanding in a person brought through maturity: the knowledge is encounter, and the doctrine is a message received by hearing.
THE MEANING
You receive understanding as your capacity matures: knowledge comes through encounter, and doctrine arrives as something heard. The image of the weaned person names a completed shift in how nourishment is received.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that understanding is just more information: receiving also depends on readiness to take in what is heard.
THE ROOT
גְּמוּלֵי
gemulei
GROWS FROM
גמל
To deal fully or bring to maturity; in this form, to wean.
The word גְּמוּלֵי (gemulei, “weaned”) presents the learner as someone brought through a transition, not simply someone of a certain age. The root’s wider sense of full dealing gives the image of maturity as a passage that changes what can be received.
ALSO GROWS
gamal: To deal fully, requite, or wean.
גָּמַל
It places weaning within a completed process of care and change.
gemul: Deed, treatment, or recompense.
גְּמוּל
The shared root can name what is rendered in full, echoing the completed transition in the weaning image.
דֵּעָה
de'ah
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know or perceive through encounter and recognition.
The word דֵּעָה (de’ah, “knowledge”) comes from ידע (yada, “know through encounter”). Knowledge here carries the texture of recognition, not merely the accumulation of facts.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know or perceive through encounter.
יָדַע
It shows the kind of knowing named in the verse: knowledge that meets a person in lived recognition.
mada: Knowledge or understanding.
מַדָּע
This related form keeps knowledge within the same root family of knowing and perceiving.
שְׁמוּעָה
shemuah
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
“doctrine” in this verse is shemuah. The word שְׁמוּעָה (shemuah, “message” or “report”) comes from שמע (shama, “hear”). The verse ties understanding to a message received by hearing, linking the listener’s readiness with what can be understood.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
It shows hearing as a receptive response, not just sound reaching the ear.
hishmia: To announce or make heard.
הִשְׁמִיעַ
It is the act of bringing a message within hearing, the same movement implied by the verse’s “doctrine.”
THE PATTERN
Deeper understanding becomes receivable as a person passes from first nourishment into maturity.
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.THE THREAD
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.Isaiah’s גְּמוּלֵי (gemulei, “weaned”) and the Psalm’s גָּמוּל (gamul, “weaned”) share the root גמל (gamal). The Psalm connects that same completed transition with a quieted soul, while Isaiah connects it with receiving knowledge and understanding.
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