What Does Isaiah 45:13 Mean in the King James?
I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts.
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
Freedom here is not a bargain: the captives are sent forth without price as the city is rebuilt.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s work moves through alignment, makes a path straight, builds a place of belonging, and releases what is captive. That release comes without price or reward; freedom is not a commodity.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that freedom must be purchased, deserved, or paid back.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁלֵּחַ
yeshalleach from shalach
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
Send, send forth, release, let go.
English’s “let go” can sound like a passive loosening, but שׁלח (shalach, to send forth or release) carries motion. The captive is not merely left unbound; the captive is sent out, as the city is rebuilt.
ALSO GROWS
shilluaḥ: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It makes the release in this verse an act of sending someone out, not simply ceasing to hold them.
Shiloach: “Sent,” a water channel or pool.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name carries the image of water sent forth; in John 9:7, Siloam is glossed as “Sent,” linking release with movement toward restored sight.
צֶדֶק
tzedek
GROWS FROM
צדק
Rightness, justice, alignment.
צֶדֶק (tzedek, alignment) gives “righteousness” the sense of being set into right relation. The verse pairs that alignment with ways made straight: the work that releases captives also establishes a path and rebuilds a city.
ALSO GROWS
tzedakah: Righteousness or justice, including acts of giving.
צְדָקָה
This branch shows alignment taking form in how people are treated and provided for.
tzaddik: An upright or just person.
צַדִּיק
It connects the aligned condition named here with a person whose life expresses it.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s deliverance releases what is captive without turning freedom into a purchase.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.The phrase “let my people go” uses the same Hebrew root, שׁלח (shalach, to send forth or release), as “let go” in Isaiah 45:13. In Exodus, release has a destination, a feast in the wilderness; Isaiah joins release to the rebuilding of a city.
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