What Does Isaiah 36:4 Mean in the King James?

And Rabshakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein thou trustest?

Isaiah 36:4 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The Hebrew uses one root for “confidence” and “trust”: what you call confidence is what you actually lean on.

THE MEANING

A threat can make the ground of your confidence feel exposed. Here, the question presses past confidence as a feeling to the thing you rely on for security. The words put that reliance in view now, even when the challenge comes from someone claiming great power.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the idea that confidence is only an inner feeling: confidence is bound to what you trust to hold you.

THE ROOT

הַבִּטָּחוֹן

habbittaḥon

GROWS FROM

בטח

to trust, rely on, or feel secure

“confidence / trust” in this verse is habbittaḥon. “Confidence” and “trusted” are forms of the same root here, joining the sense of security to the act of relying. The question asks what makes that reliance feel secure.

ALSO GROWS

bāṭaḥ: to trust or rely on

בָּטַח

This verb is the root behind the passage’s “thou trustest,” so the question challenges an act of reliance, not just a feeling.

mivṭāḥ: refuge or security

מִבְטָח

This noun from the same root makes the hidden question concrete: what is being treated as a secure place to lean?

חִזְקִיָּהוּ

Ḥizqiyyāhû

GROWS FROM

חזק

to be strong or to strengthen

The name carries the sense “YHWH strengthens.” Its meaning sits beside the Assyrian king’s boast, placing a claim about the source of strength inside the very challenge to Hezekiah’s confidence.

ALSO GROWS

ḥāzāq: strong

חָזָק

This adjective shares the name’s root and makes its language of strength audible.

ḥizzēq: strengthen, make strong

חִזֵּק

This verb shows the root as an action: strength can be given or made firm, not merely claimed.

THE PATTERN

A challenge makes reliance visible by pressing what a person treats as secure.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.

Psalm 20:7 · KJVThe contrast names different sources of security and shows that a challenge exposes where trust is placed.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5 · KJVThe verse describes trust as leaning, making reliance more than an inward feeling.

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

2 Corinthians 1:9 · KJVThe pressure of death brings the question of where trust rests into the open.

THE THREAD

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

Psalm 56:3 · KJV

The verb translated “trust” comes from ⁨בטח⁩ (bāṭaḥ), meaning to trust or feel secure, the same root behind “confidence” and “trusted” in Isaiah 36:4. This verse places trust beside admitted fear, showing that the question of reliance remains present under pressure.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us