What Does Isaiah 43:24 Mean in the King James?
Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
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
You bring no fragrant offering, yet your missing makes God serve and your crookedness wears him down.
THE MEANING
God speaks to you now: no fragrant cane is bought for him, and no sacrificial fat fills him; you make him serve through your missing and wear him down through your crookedness. The strain falls on God as he bears the labor of what you do.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God is the one exhausting you with ritual demands: the preceding verse says he does not make you serve with an offering, while this verse says your sins make him serve.
THE ROOT
הֶעֱבַדְתַּנִי
he'evadtani
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
to work, serve
“made me to serve” in this verse is he'evadtani. The verb is causative: you make me serve. Your own missing places God in the role of the one who labors.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: servant
עֶבֶד
The same root names the one who serves, making the reversal in the verse audible.
ʿavodah: work, service
עֲבֹדָה
The root holds work and service together, so the verse presents the reader’s sins as labor God is made to bear.
חַטֹּאותֶיךָ
ḥaṭṭōʾōṯêḵā
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
to miss, go wrong
The word for sins grows from a root of missing. Its word family can also name חַטָּאת (ḥaṭṭāʾt), an offering for the missing; here, the missing itself is named alongside offerings the reader does not bring.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: to miss, go wrong
חָטָא
This verb shares the root of “your sins,” framing them as misses rather than an abstract stain.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: sin; an offering for the missing
חַטָּאת
The same word family can name both the missing and an offering associated with it, echoing the verse’s contrast between absent offerings and present wrongdoing.
הוֹגַעְתַּנִי
hōgaʿtānî
GROWS FROM
יגע
y-g-ʿ
to toil, grow weary through exertion
The root carries the toil of sustained exertion, so “wearied” names more than a passing annoyance. Beside “made me serve,” it makes the reader’s crookedness sound like work God is left carrying.
ALSO GROWS
yāgēaʿ: weary
יָגֵעַ
The same root describes the state produced by exertion, clarifying the force of “wearied me.”
yegīʿāh: toil, labor
יְגִיעָה
This branch makes the verse’s fatigue language concrete: the crookedness weighs as labor.
THE PATTERN
Offering cannot substitute for the faithful response and conduct God desires.
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.THE THREAD
Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.The same verbs appear in both verses: God says he does not make you serve or weary you with offerings, then says you make him serve through your sins and weary him with your crookedness. The next verse flips who bears the labor.
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