What Does Isaiah 36:7 Mean in the King James?

But if thou say to me, We trust in the LORD our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?

Isaiah 36:7 · 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

A hostile voice makes devotion to one altar look like betrayal by treating every removed altar as though it must belong to God.

THE MEANING

The accusation makes trust in the LORD sound incompatible with worship centered at one altar: it treats the removed altars as proof that the LORD has been dishonored. The verse shows how a charge can borrow the language of devotion and turn it into pressure against trust.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The false belief it exposes is that removing a religious practice automatically means rejecting God.

THE ROOT

בָּטָחְנוּ

bāṭaḥnû

GROWS FROM

בטח

b-ṭ-ḥ

To be secure; to trust or rely upon.

The accuser attaches trust to worship’s visible arrangement and claims that arrangement disproves it. This root also names security and refuge, so the pressure is over where confidence rests, not just what Judah says.

ALSO GROWS

bāṭaḥ: To trust; to be secure.

בָּטַח

The verb names the trust the accusation tries to discredit.

mivṭāḥ: Refuge; confidence.

מִבְטָח

This noun from the same root shows the security carried within the idea of trust.

תִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ

tištaḥăwû

GROWS FROM

שחה

š-ḥ-h

To bow down; to prostrate oneself.

The Hebrew word translated “worship” names the act of bowing down. It makes the body’s posture visible in a verse where the accusation tries to bind that posture to one location.

ALSO GROWS

šāḥâ: To bow low; to prostrate oneself.

שָׁחָה

This is the basic action beneath the verse’s word for worship.

hištaḥăwâ: To bow down in homage; to worship.

הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה

This form carries the same root action into the act of paying homage.

מִזְבֵּחַ

mizbēaḥ

GROWS FROM

זבח

z-b-ḥ

To slaughter or sacrifice.

The altar’s name comes from the act of sacrificing, so the word carries the action performed there inside it. The speaker turns a change in sacrificial location into apparent evidence that trust in the LORD is misplaced.

ALSO GROWS

zābaḥ: To sacrifice; to slaughter for sacrifice.

זָבַח

This verb is the action from which the altar’s name is formed.

zevaḥ: A sacrifice; a sacrificial meal.

זֶבַח

This noun shows the offering associated with the altar.

THE PATTERN

An accusing voice can recast trust or obedience as evidence of betrayal by manipulating what it means.

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Genesis 3:1 · KJVThe question recasts a boundary as grounds for suspicion about what God has said.

Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?

Job 1:9 · KJVThe accusation recasts devotion as self-interest, making trust seem like a transaction.

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Matthew 4:6 · KJVScripture is used to pressure Jesus to prove trust through a dangerous display.

THE THREAD

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

Proverbs 3:5 · KJV

The same Hebrew root, ⁨בטח⁩ (b-ṭ-ḥ), appears in “trust” here and in Isaiah 36:7. Isaiah shows how an accusation can make trust seem irrational by tying it to an altar dispute; Proverbs places that trust in the whole heart.

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