What Does Isaiah 38:21 Mean in the King James?
For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.
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 verse describes recovery with the root for living: the outcome is not only a changed sore, but a life that continues.
THE MEANING
A painful affliction can fill the whole field of vision, but the verse holds life larger than the sore: a remedy is laid on the boil, and he lives. Its ending reaches beyond the condition of the skin to the continued life of the person.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a severe, visible illness means the body’s story is already over.
THE ROOT
וְיֶחִי
wĕyeḥî
GROWS FROM
חיה
To live or remain alive; in some forms, to preserve or restore life.
The Hebrew verb literally expresses that he lives, giving the KJV’s “recover” the concrete endpoint of continued life. Its root also opens into words for the living and for life itself, so the verse’s healing reaches beyond the sore to the person.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Living, alive
חַי
This branch names the state expressed by the verse’s final verb: he is alive.
chayyim: Life
חַיִּים
This branch widens the outcome from the boil’s condition to life itself.
THE PATTERN
Healing meets affliction at its point of distress, and its measure is restored life.
And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered.And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.THE THREAD
O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.Isaiah’s “recover” comes from חיה (chayah), the root for living. Psalm 30 uses that same root in “kept me alive,” extending the verse’s bodily healing into the language of life brought back from the grave.
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