What Does Isaiah 41:16 Mean in the King James?
Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
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 “wind” scattering them is רוּחַ (ruach, breath), the same Hebrew word used for breath, so the verse holds scattering and life’s unseen movement in one image.
THE MEANING
What stands against you is pictured as chaff: it is fanned out, carried away, and scattered. Your joy and your boast have their center in the LORD, the Set-Apart One of Israel.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that what opposes you is too solid to move gives way: the verse pictures it as chaff before the wind, while your rejoicing takes its center in the LORD.
THE ROOT
תִּזְרֵם
tizrem
GROWS FROM
ז־ר־ה
z-r-h
to scatter, disperse, or winnow
English “fan” can sound like simply moving air, while the verb carries the work of scattering and separating seed. Here the scattering itself is a sifting: what is driven off cannot stay among you.
ALSO GROWS
mizreh: winnowing fan or fork
מִזְרֶה
This tool is named from the same winnowing action, showing the physical instrument behind the verse’s image.
zoreh: one who winnows
זֹרֶה
This form names the person doing the same separating work that the verse gives to “you.”
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
ר־ו־ח
r-w-ḥ
breath, blowing, wind
The KJV’s “wind” is the same Hebrew word that also means breath. The scattering force is described through the same word that names breath’s unseen movement.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: wind
רוּחַ
This is the sense active in the verse: moving air carries the scattered away.
ruach: breath
רוּחַ
This is the same word as “wind,” restoring a connection that English gives two different words.
תִּתְהַלָּל
tit'hallal
GROWS FROM
ה־ל־ל
h-l-l
to praise or boast
The word rendered “glory” belongs to a family of praise and boasting. Your boast is directed toward the LORD and the Set-Apart One of Israel, giving your rejoicing its center beyond yourself.
ALSO GROWS
hallel: praise
הַלֵּל
This form names praise directly, revealing the praise within the verse’s “glory.”
tehillah: praise or a song of praise
תְּהִלָּה
This related noun shows the same root becoming an expressed song of praise.
THE PATTERN
What opposes you loses its hold like chaff in the wind, while your joy and boast find their center in God.
The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.THE THREAD
The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.The “fan” here comes from the same ז־ר־ה (z-r-h, scatter or winnow) root as the action in Isaiah 41:16. Isaiah 30:24 uses winnowing to describe grain cleaned for food, revealing the separating work beneath the scattering image.
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