What Does Isaiah 29:14 Mean in the King James?
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
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 “marvellous work” and “wonder” repeat one Hebrew root: the work itself is the wonder that brings human certainty undone.
THE MEANING
A work of God can be unfolding beyond the categories you trust. What feels like your surest wisdom can lose its footing, and even your discernment can be veiled before the wonder.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that intelligence guarantees a clear view of what God is doing.
THE ROOT
פֶּלֶא
peleʾ
GROWS FROM
פלא
P-L-ʾ
To be wonderful or extraordinary, beyond ordinary human measure.
“marvellous work / wonder” in this verse is peleʾ. English distinguishes “marvellous work” from “wonder,” while Hebrew brings both through the same פלא root, repeated in the phrase. The wonder is not a spectacle beside the work; the work itself exceeds the human frame, and that excess exposes wisdom’s limit.
ALSO GROWS
niflaʾot: Wonders, marvelous acts
נִפְלָאוֹת
The same root names acts that exceed ordinary human reach, linking this work to a wider pattern of wonders.
nifleiti: I am wonderfully made
נִפְלֵאתִי
The root can describe not only an astonishing act but a wondrously formed life, placing wonder within what exists as well as what happens.
אָבְדָה
ʾāvdāh
GROWS FROM
אבד
ʾ-B-D
To be lost or perish.
“perish” in this verse is ʾāvdāh. The verse says wisdom perishes with a verb whose range includes being lost. Its collapse is pictured as losing its way or vanishing from reach, not merely losing an argument.
ALSO GROWS
ʾoved: One who is perishing or lost
אָבֵד
This form makes the shared root’s sense of lostness visible in the fate of wisdom.
ʾavaddon: Destruction, ruin
אֲבַדּוֹן
The noun carries the same root into a state of ruin, showing how completely something can be lost.
בִּינַת
binat
GROWS FROM
בין
B-Y-N
To discern by distinguishing; to perceive what lies between or how things differ.
The Hebrew word for understanding is tied to discerning distinctions, not merely possessing information. Here even that faculty can be hidden, so the verse unsettles human certainty at the level of perception itself.
ALSO GROWS
bein: Between
בֵּין
The shared root links understanding with perceiving distinctions and relations.
mevin: One who understands or discerns
מֵבִין
This form names the one exercising discernment, the very capacity the verse says can be veiled.
THE PATTERN
When God acts beyond human measure, confident wisdom can lose its footing.
He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.THE THREAD
Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.“Wonders” here comes from פלא, the same root repeated in Isaiah’s “marvellous work” and “wonder.” Isaiah shows wonder undoing human certainty; the psalm shows that same wonder making God’s strength known among the people.
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