What Does Isaiah 39:3 Mean in the King James?
Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.
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
Hezekiah names the visitors’ distant origin but not their words, letting Babylon’s distance occupy the place of the message.
THE MEANING
Two questions stand together: what is being said, and where the speakers come from. The answer names the distant place, Babylon, while leaving their words unreported; the verse lets you feel how an impressive origin can occupy attention while the message itself stays outside the frame.
THE ROOT
רְחוֹקָה
reḥoqah
GROWS FROM
רחק
To be distant or removed; in a causative form, to put far away.
English makes “far” sound like a neutral measure of distance, while the Hebrew root can also describe separation or removal. The visitors come from a far land “unto me”: distance and arrival meet in the same phrase.
ALSO GROWS
rāḥōq: Far, distant.
רָחוֹק
This related form makes the visitors’ remoteness explicit.
hirḥîq: To put far away, remove.
הִרְחִיק
This causative form shows distance as something that can be made or imposed, not only measured.
בָּבֶל
Bāvel
GROWS FROM
בלל
To mix or confuse; Genesis 11:9 links Bavel with this root through biblical wordplay.
Isaiah gives the visitors’ place of origin as Babylon. Genesis 11:9 supplies a Hebrew sound-link between Bavel and balal, “to mix” or “confuse,” giving the place-name that scriptural association while this verse leaves the visitors’ words unstated.
ALSO GROWS
bālal: To mix, confuse.
בָּלַל
Genesis 11:9 uses this word when explaining Babel’s name.
belil: A mixture, especially mixed fodder.
בְּלִיל
This related form keeps the root’s sense of things mixed together audible beneath the name’s biblical wordplay.
THE PATTERN
Geographic distance does not prevent a presence from crossing into the places that matter most.
Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD.But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.THE THREAD
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.The name Isaiah gives is בָּבֶל (Bavel), the same name rendered Babel here. Genesis 11:9 links it by sound and story to בָּלַל (balal), “to mix” or “confuse,” so the distant place carries that scriptural association while the visitors’ actual words remain unheard.
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