What Does Isaiah 38:13 Mean in the King James?
I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
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 verb translated “make an end” shares its root with שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), holding completion and wholeness in one seed even as the speaker feels broken.
THE MEANING
When pain makes the body feel as though every bone is being crushed, the fear of being brought to an end can run from day through night. This verse gives that terror direct speech to God without smoothing its accusation into reassurance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a cry to God must sound calm or confident: the speaker names God as the one making an end of him.
THE ROOT
תַּשְׁלִימֵנִי
tashlimeni
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
Be whole or complete; bring to completion, make good, or repay.
The verb translated “make an end” belongs to the same root as שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) and שָׁלֵם (shalem, complete). Here that range stays painfully open: the speaker experiences completion as being brought to an end, while the root also carries the idea of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, peace
שָׁלוֹם
This branch shares the root of “make an end,” revealing a connection English does not show without turning the speaker’s suffering into reassurance.
shalem: Whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
It makes the root’s sense of completion audible beside the verse’s stark ending.
shillem: Repay, recompense
שִׁלֵּם
This branch shows the root can also carry the sense of settling or completing what is due.
יְשַׁבֵּר
yeshabber
GROWS FROM
ש־ב־ר
sh-b-r
Break, shatter.
The root reaches beyond a bodily break to words for fracture, ruin, and crashing force. The lion image and “all my bones” make the speaker’s sense of being overwhelmed unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
shever: Breakage, breach, ruin
שֶׁבֶר
This noun shows how the root can name a fracture or collapse, not only the act of breaking bones.
mishbar: Breaker, a crashing wave or billow
מִשְׁבָּר
The root also names a force that crashes over and overwhelms, echoing the lion’s crushing force in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Pain speaks to God in bodily language, naming what is being broken without softening it.
Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed.My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest.Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;THE THREAD
LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.Isaiah 26:12 uses שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness or peace), from the same root as the verb translated “make an end” here. The shared root holds completion and wholeness together without turning this speaker’s suffering into reassurance.
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