What Does Isaiah 43:21 Mean in the King James?
This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
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 word translated “shew forth” means “recount,” so praise here is the story a people formed for God keeps telling.
THE MEANING
You are part of a people whose life is formed for God and whose voice recounts what is worthy of praise. The verse joins your received identity to a living telling: the people become the account they carry.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that purpose must be self-made and praise is only a private feeling added afterward; here, formation and recounting belong to one movement.
THE ROOT
יְסַפֵּרוּ
yesapperu
GROWS FROM
סָפַר
safar
To count, recount, or relate.
“shew forth” in this verse is yesapperu. The people do not merely feel praise; they recount it. The Hebrew makes praise an ongoing telling, a story kept in circulation.
ALSO GROWS
sefer: A written record.
סֵפֶר
The same root connects recounting with a story preserved in written form.
sippur: A telling of events.
סִפּוּר
This branch makes the verse’s praise sound like a people telling what God has done.
יָצַרְתִּי
yatsarti
GROWS FROM
יָצַר
yatsar
To form or shape.
“formed” in this verse is yatsarti. The people’s identity is something shaped for God, not something they invent from nothing. The root also carries the image of a potter forming clay, so belonging and formation meet in one word.
ALSO GROWS
yotser: One who forms or shapes.
יוֹצֵר
The potter image shows the hands-on shaping contained in “formed.”
yetser: A formed pattern or disposition.
יֵצֶר
This branch links shaping with the character that takes shape.
תְּהִלָּתִי
tehillati
GROWS FROM
הָלַל
halal
To praise or celebrate.
“My praise” comes from the same root as the act of praising: the people recount what belongs to God’s praise. The word’s possessive form ties their telling to the one they are formed for.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise or a song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
This is the noun from which “my praise” is formed.
hallelu-Yah: A call to praise Yah.
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ
It carries the same praise-root into a direct call to celebrate.
THE PATTERN
A people formed by God carry praise forward by telling what God has done.
This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David. I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.The verb translated “shew forth” in both verses comes from סָפַר (safar), “to count or recount.” Psalm 9 makes the action plain: praise recounts God’s works, and Isaiah presents a people formed to keep that telling alive.
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