What Does Isaiah 34:15 Mean in the King James?
There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
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 ruined place is no empty wasteland: it is a nursery and meeting ground where life keeps opening and gathering.
THE MEANING
A bird lays and hatches young under her shadow, while vultures assemble with their mates. The scene holds devastation and animal life together: this place is a nursery and gathering ground even as it lies in ruin.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that a ruined place is an empty place: the loss of one kind of dwelling can become habitat for another.
THE ROOT
וּבָקְעָה
uvaqʿāh
GROWS FROM
בקע
bāqaʿ
to split, cleave, or break open
The verb translated “hatch” carries the image of splitting or breaking open; the same root describes the sea’s waters being divided and the deep breaking open. A bird’s hatching shares the language of rupture, so new animal life appears within a landscape of devastation.
ALSO GROWS
wayyibbāqəʿû: split or divided
וַיִּבָּקְעוּ
Exodus 14:21 uses this root for the waters opening at the sea, giving “hatch” the additional sense of life emerging through an opening.
broken up: split open
נִבְקְעוּ
Genesis 7:11 uses the same root for the fountains of the deep breaking open, echoing the force of rupture in this bird’s hatching.
נִקְבְּצוּ
niqbeṣu
GROWS FROM
קבץ
qābaṣ
to gather, collect, or bring together
The word translated “gathered” is the same verb used for gathering Israel’s outcasts and assembling nations. The root names the act of collecting without deciding its meaning; here it gathers birds in a desolate scene, while elsewhere it gathers people who are scattered.
ALSO GROWS
gathereth: gathers or collects
מְקַבֵּץ
Isaiah 56:8 uses this form for the LORD gathering Israel’s outcasts, showing the same root at work in a scene of restoration.
yiqqābəṣû: be assembled or brought together
יִקָּבְצוּ
Isaiah 43:9 applies the root to nations assembled together, extending the gathering image beyond the birds in this verse.
THE PATTERN
In a devastated place, animal life nests, roosts, and multiplies.
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work.And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.THE THREAD
The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.This verse uses the same Hebrew root as “gathered” in Isaiah 34:15: the verb itself names collection, while the gathered ones shape the scene. Here it gathers Israel’s outcasts, opening the gathering image beyond the birds without erasing the desolation of Isaiah 34.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us