What Does Isaiah 42:16 Mean in the King James?

And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

Isaiah 42:16 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The same root names both the unknown way and the act of leading: the path opens as you are guided along it.

THE MEANING

The route you cannot yet recognize is still being opened before you; what lies in darkness becomes light ahead, and what bends the road is made level. The promise meets blindness and unfamiliarity as they are. Even as the way unfolds, you are not forsaken.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that you must already see the route clearly before guidance can reach you.

THE ROOT

דֶּרֶךְ

derek

GROWS FROM

ד־ר־ך

d-r-k

To tread or step along a way; in a causative form, to guide or lead.

“way / lead” in this verse is derek. The word for “way” and the word rendered “I will lead them” come from the same root. Hebrew holds the road and the act of guiding together: you are led along a way that becomes known as you move through it.

ALSO GROWS

derek: Way, road, path

דֶּרֶךְ

This is the unfamiliar way the verse says you do not already know.

darakh: To tread, step, or walk along

דָּרַךְ

The root pictures a way as ground that is traveled, not merely a direction understood in advance.

hidrik: To guide or lead

הִדְרִיךְ

This causative form makes the link explicit: the same root that names the way also names leading someone along it.

מִישׁוֹר

mishor

GROWS FROM

י־ש־ר

y-sh-r

To be straight, level, or upright.

The word rendered “straight” is mishor, a level place or plain, from a root that also carries the sense of uprightness. The line holds a road made passable and a life set upright in one word family.

ALSO GROWS

yashar: To be straight, level, or right

יָשַׁר

This verb’s sense of straightening illuminates the verse’s image of a crooked way made passable.

yashar: Straight, level, or upright

יָשָׁר

The same word can describe uprightness as well as a straight course, joining the physical and moral shades of the image.

mesharim: Level places; uprightness or equity

מֵישָׁרִים

This related form preserves both the image of level ground and the quality of uprightness.

THE PATTERN

Guidance makes the hidden way visible and removes what keeps the path from being walked.

The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:

Psalm 146:8 · KJVSight arrives through the LORD’s action, echoing the promise to lead those who cannot see the way.

For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.

Psalm 18:28 · KJVThe darkness is met with light, as the unknown road is illuminated before the one being led.

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;

Luke 3:5 · KJVWhat obstructs the route is leveled and straightened so the way can be traveled.

THE THREAD

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Psalm 32:8 · KJV

Isaiah uses derek (“way”) and adrikhem (“I will lead them”), forms of ⁨ד־ר־ך⁩, the root of treading a way. Psalm 32:8 gathers the same movement into one promise: instruction in the way, and guidance along it.

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