What Does Isaiah 39:5 Mean in the King James?

Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:

Isaiah 39:5 · 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.

THE KEY

Here, hearing is already a response to the word, not merely the receipt of sound.

THE MEANING

You are addressed by a word from the LORD of hosts, and hearing it means receiving it with the readiness to respond. The verse places that attentive hearing before the message unfolds.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that hearing the word is passive exposure; here, hearing includes heed and response.

THE ROOT

שְׁמַע

shema

GROWS FROM

שמע

sh-m-ʿ

Hear, listen, heed, and respond.

“Hear” in this verse is shema. The Hebrew verb carries more than sound reaching the ear: it joins hearing with heed and response. The command makes receptivity the first movement in meeting the word.

ALSO GROWS

shema: Hear, heed, respond.

שְׁמַע

This imperative uses the root directly, making hearing itself a responsive act.

shemu'ah: Report, tidings, something heard.

שְׁמוּעָה

The same root names both hearing and what is heard, linking attentive reception to a message with substance.

דְּבַר

devar

GROWS FROM

דבר

d-b-r

Speak; a spoken word or matter.

The Hebrew word can refer to speech and to the matter at hand. The LORD’s word is therefore not only something heard; it is a matter that reaches the reader.

ALSO GROWS

davar: Word, matter, thing.

דָּבָר

Its range lets the word be heard as a concrete matter, not sound alone.

dibber: He spoke.

דִּבֵּר

This verbal branch shows the spoken act at the root of the message Isaiah names.

THE PATTERN

Scriptural hearing joins receiving a word with responding to it.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deuteronomy 6:4 · KJVThe call to hear opens with the same Hebrew verb, joining attention to the declaration that follows.

And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Mark 4:9 · KJVHearing is presented as an active reception of what is being said.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Revelation 2:7 · KJVThe call to hear leads into a response and its consequence.

THE THREAD

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deuteronomy 6:4 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨שְׁמַע⁩ (shema, hear and respond), making the shared root visible beneath the English. Deuteronomy’s opening call shows the same pattern: hearing receives the word that follows.

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