What Does Isaiah 33:15 Mean in the King James?
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
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
Here, oppressive “gain” carries the image of a cut taken from someone else, so alignment begins where another’s loss stops becoming your profit.
THE MEANING
Alignment reaches every part of your life: the direction you walk, the straightness of your speech, and what your hands accept. Your ears and eyes are not neutral openings here; closing them to bloodshed and evil belongs to the same integrity as refusing a bribe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that integrity concerns only visible actions, while profit, what you hear, and what you watch are separate from it.
THE ROOT
בֶּצַע
betsaʿ
GROWS FROM
בצע
b-ṣ-ʿ
To cut off or break off; the same root also carries the sense of profit or booty.
The root connects gain with taking something away. In this verse, oppressive profit is not detached from the extraction that produces it: another person’s loss has become someone else’s advantage.
ALSO GROWS
batsaʿ: To cut off, break off, or take gain.
בָּצַע
This verb keeps the act of taking visible beneath the English word “gain.”
botseaʿ: One who gains or grasps profit.
בֹּצֵעַ
The person who profits belongs to the same root as the act of cutting off, linking the taker to what is taken.
צְדָקוֹת
tsedaqot
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
Justice and rightness; alignment with what is right.
“righteously” in this verse is tsedaqot. The root presents righteousness as alignment, not merely a label. Joined to “walketh,” it describes a direction that continues through the hands, ears, and eyes.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Justice, rightness, alignment.
צֶדֶק
It shows the standard toward which the person’s walk is aligned.
tsaddiq: A just or righteous person.
צַדִּיק
The person’s nature grows from the same root as justice: alignment is embodied, not claimed.
tsedaqah: Righteousness or justice expressed in action.
צְדָקָה
It brings the root’s alignment into conduct, matching the verse’s attention to what the hands will and will not hold.
THE PATTERN
Integrity appears as a whole-life alignment, seen in what a person refuses to take, say, hear, or set before the eyes.
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:THE THREAD
He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.Psalm 15:2 uses the same Hebrew root הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk” or “go”) and pairs that walk with justice and truth spoken from the heart. Isaiah opens the same path outward into the choices of the hands, ears, and eyes.
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