What Does Isaiah 43:18 Mean in the King James?
Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
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 past is not erased; it stops being the only lens through which you can perceive what is unfolding now.
THE MEANING
You are not asked to deny that former things happened. Their memory does not have to define the whole horizon of the present, which can hold what the old pattern could not.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What happened before is the only pattern the present can repeat.
THE ROOT
תִּזְכְּרוּ
tizkeru
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember, call to mind, bring to remembrance.
“remember” in this verse is tizkeru. Zakar describes actively bringing something to mind, not merely possessing a memory. The verse loosens the repeated summoning of former events, so they no longer command present perception.
ALSO GROWS
zakar: Remember or call to mind.
זָכַר
This is the verb used in the verse: the focus is on what is actively brought to mind.
zikkaron: A remembrance or memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
This related word shows how remembering can keep something present; here, the former things are not to occupy that place.
קַדְמֹנִיּוֹת
qadmoniyyot
GROWS FROM
קדם
q-d-m
Come before or be in front; by extension, what is ancient or from the east.
“things of old” in this verse is qadmoniyyot. Qadmoniyyot shares its root with qedem, meaning east or ancient time, and qadam, to precede. The old is linguistically what came before; it does not have to define what comes next.
ALSO GROWS
qedem: The east, antiquity, or former times.
קֶדֶם
It connects the things of old with what lies in the past.
qadam: Come before or precede.
קָדַם
It reveals the word’s sense of what has already come before the present.
תִּתְבֹּנָנוּ
titbonanu
GROWS FROM
בין
b-y-n
Discern, understand, distinguish.
“consider” in this verse is titbonanu. The verb carries the sense of discerning or understanding, not simply glancing at something. The verse addresses the mind’s act of turning the old things over and making them its interpretation of the present.
ALSO GROWS
bin: Discern or understand.
בִּין
This root gives “consider” its sense of making distinctions and forming understanding.
binah: Understanding or discernment.
בִּינָה
This branch shows how consideration shapes what the mind understands about the present.
THE PATTERN
A new work becomes visible when the former order no longer sets the horizon.
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.THE THREAD
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.The same Hebrew root זכר (z-k-r), “remember,” appears in both verses, alongside the same phrase for “former things.” Isaiah 65:17 extends the release of the past into the renewal of creation itself.
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