What Does Isaiah 39:6 Mean in the King James?
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.
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 turns stored treasure into cargo: what is gathered and guarded can itself be carried away.
THE MEANING
A house can hold a lifetime of stored things and still cannot make them secure. What is laid up may be carried beyond its keeper’s reach until nothing remains. The verse lets the full loss stand in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what is securely stored is therefore secure is undone: the storehouse can be emptied, with nothing left behind.
THE ROOT
יִשָּׂא
yissāʾ
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
The verb gives the verse its force: the contents of a house are lifted out and borne away. This root can describe goods removed from reach or a burden carried on someone’s shoulders; the thing carried determines the weight of the action.
ALSO GROWS
nasi: Prince or leader; one raised up.
נָשִׂיא
The same root that carries the house’s contents away can describe someone lifted into prominence.
nasa avon: To bear crookedness or guilt.
נָשָׂא עָוֹן
Here the carried thing is an inward burden rather than stored goods, revealing how broadly this root holds the act of bearing.
אָצְרוּ
ʾāṣərû
GROWS FROM
אצר
To store up or gather as treasure.
The verb translated “laid up in store” belongs to the same root family as the word for treasure and treasury. What is valued and where it is kept share one seed, yet neither the treasure nor its storehouse guarantees that it will remain.
ALSO GROWS
otsar: Treasure or treasury; a storehouse.
אֹצָר
The noun joins the stored wealth to the place that holds it, sharpening the verse’s image of a house emptied of both.
otser: One who stores; a treasurer.
אֹצֵר
The root can name the keeper as well as the treasure, while the verse shows that keeping does not ensure possession.
יִוָּתֵר
yivvater
GROWS FROM
יתר
To remain, be left over, or exceed.
This root reaches from what remains beyond to what exceeds or is gained. The verse closes that possibility completely: there is no remainder, no surplus left in the house.
ALSO GROWS
yeter: Remainder or excess.
יֶתֶר
The verse’s “nothing shall be left” denies even the excess that this related word can name.
yitron: Gain, profit, or advantage.
יִתְרוֹן
The same root can describe what is gained; here the total loss leaves no gain or remainder to claim.
THE PATTERN
What is accumulated can leave human possession suddenly, exposing the difference between storing something and keeping it.
And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?THE THREAD
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.The Hebrew verb translated “carried” here shares the root נשא with “borne” in Isaiah 53:4. In one verse the house’s contents are carried away; in the other, griefs are borne, the same movement of carrying, with different things held in its grasp.
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