What Does Isaiah 29:5 Mean in the King James?
Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
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 verse turns a noisy multitude into loose debris: the crowd’s menace has no guarantee of permanence.
THE MEANING
Whatever confronts you as an overwhelming multitude is pictured as fine dust and chaff that cannot hold together; its passing is sudden. The verse measures this force by how it ends, not by how immense or terrifying it looks.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a force becomes permanent or invincible because it is numerous and frightening.
THE ROOT
הָמוֹן
hāmôn
GROWS FROM
המה
To roar, murmur, or surge noisily.
English “multitude” sounds like a count, but הָמוֹן also carries the sense of tumult and roar. The verse moves that noisy mass into fine dust and chaff: what seems weighty because it is loud and numerous proves easy to scatter.
ALSO GROWS
hāmāh: To roar, murmur, or make a tumultuous sound.
הָמָה
This verb reveals the noise inside the crowd: its apparent force is also a roar that can fade.
hāmôn: A tumult, roaring crowd, or multitude.
הָמוֹן
The same word can name both the crowd and its uproar, joining its size to the noise it makes.
עָרִיצִים
ʿārîṣîm
GROWS FROM
ערץ
To terrify or inspire dread.
The “terrible ones” are the dread-inspiring oppressors; their identity is bound to the fear they provoke. Yet the verse gives them the same end as the crowd: they pass like chaff.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāraṣ: To terrify or make someone tremble.
עָרַץ
The verb names the fear-producing force behind the “terrible ones.”
ʿārîṣ: A ruthless or tyrannical person; one who inspires dread.
עָרִיץ
The plural in the verse names those whose menace seems formidable, then shows that menace scattering.
THE PATTERN
A force does not become lasting simply because it gathers in great numbers; what is like chaff can be scattered or removed.
The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.THE THREAD
Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!Isaiah 17:12 uses הֲמוֹן (hāmôn, tumult or multitude) for the roaring crowd, the same root-family as “multitude” here. That verse lets you hear the mass as noise; Isaiah 29:5 shows the noisy mass reduced to dust and chaff.
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