What Does Isaiah 36:15 Mean in the King James?
Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria.
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
One English “deliver” holds two opposite movements here: being snatched free and being handed over.
THE MEANING
A voice can make trust sound foolish by treating surrender as inevitable. Here the speaker repeats Hezekiah’s confidence in the LORD while trying to discredit it. The verse shows how a threatened future can be presented as though it were already settled.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A threat’s certainty does not prove that the threatened outcome is settled; the verse presents it as a claim competing with the promise of rescue.
THE ROOT
הַצֵּל יַצִּילֵנוּ
hatsel yatsilenu
GROWS FROM
נצל
natsal
To snatch away, rescue, or deliver.
“deliver us” in this verse is hatsel yatsilenu. The paired forms intensify the claim: “surely rescue us.” The root pictures being pulled clear of danger, a motion distinct from the city being handed over later in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
nitsal: He escaped or was delivered.
נִצַּל
This form keeps the root’s image of being pulled out of danger.
matsil: One who rescues or delivers.
מַצִּיל
The same root can name the rescuer as well as the act of rescue.
תִּנָּתֵן
tinnaten
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
To give, set, or place.
“be delivered” in this verse is tinnaten. The second “deliver” is literally “be given,” followed by “into the hand” of the king. Hebrew sets rescue from danger beside transfer into another’s power; the English repetition lets those opposite movements sound alike.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
This noun from the same root shows the basic movement of something being given.
natun: Given or placed.
נָתוּן
This form makes the handover in the verse concrete: the city is pictured as placed into another’s hand.
יַבְטַח
yivtach
GROWS FROM
בטח
batach
To trust or feel secure.
The speaker frames trust as something Hezekiah might induce, making reliance sound like manipulation. But batach carries the sense of security itself, which is precisely what the threat tries to unsettle.
ALSO GROWS
batuach: Secure or confident.
בָּטוּחַ
This form names the settled feeling that the speaker is trying to undermine.
mivtach: Security or refuge.
מִבְטָח
The shared root links trust with a place or condition of safety.
THE PATTERN
A threat can make surrender sound settled, while trust holds the threatened outcome as a claim rather than a fact.
What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.THE THREAD
The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.Isaiah’s יַצִּילֵנוּ (yatsilenu, “he will rescue us”) and the Psalm’s יַצִּילֵם (yatsilem, “he delivers them”) share נצל (natsal, “rescue”). The shared root opens “deliver us” onto the image of being pulled out of trouble.
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