What Does Isaiah 43:16 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters;
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 Hebrew pictures the LORD placing a way within the sea itself, right where footing seems impossible.
THE MEANING
The verse names the LORD as the one who gives a way through the waters that overwhelm sight. The sea remains in the picture, yet a path is there within it. Your present impossibility is not, by itself, proof that passage is absent.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A way can exist only after the threatening waters are gone.
THE ROOT
הַנֹּתֵן
hannōtēn
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, set, or place.
The Hebrew form rendered “maketh” carries the sense of giving or placing. The way is presented as provision placed within the sea, not as something that appears only after the sea is gone.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This root meaning opens “maketh a way” as the giving or placing of a path within the waters.
mattan: A gift or present.
מַתָּן
This related word carries the sense of something given; the way in the verse is likewise given where it is needed.
דֶּרֶךְ
déreḵ
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread or step.
The word for “way” grows from the action of stepping or treading. What the verse calls a way is actual footing in the place where the waters seem to deny it.
ALSO GROWS
darak: To tread or step; also to bend a bow.
דָּרַךְ
Its sense of taking a step gives “way” a bodily concreteness: this is ground for passage, not merely a direction.
midrakh: A place trodden, or a footprint.
מִדְרָךְ
This related word evokes the trace of feet; the path in the verse becomes a place where movement can happen.
THE PATTERN
The LORD makes passage through waters that appear to block all movement.
And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.THE THREAD
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.The same Hebrew word for “way,” דֶּרֶךְ (derekh), appears in both verses. The image shifts from a path within overwhelming waters to a way through barren wilderness: neither flood nor emptiness has the final word on passage.
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