What Does Isaiah 45:14 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.
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 labor and wealth of mighty peoples cross toward you in chains, yet their final confession names God as present within you.
THE MEANING
You are placed in the scene as the one toward whom labor, wealth, and people of stature cross in chains. Their confession names God as present in you, and the verse leaves the coercion of those chains in full view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that wealth and stature place anyone beyond being bound: even men of stature arrive in chains, and their confession centers God’s presence.
THE ROOT
יַעַבְרוּ
ya'avru
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿavar
to cross, pass through, or go beyond
The Hebrew repeats this crossing verb twice where the KJV says “come over.” Its second use explicitly joins the crossing to chains, making bondage part of the movement rather than a detail that disappears at arrival.
ALSO GROWS
ʿever: the other side; beyond
עֵבֶר
This branch carries the sense of crossing toward what lies beyond, echoing the movement toward the one addressed.
ma'avar: a passage or crossing
מַעֲבָר
It makes the shared root’s central image explicit: the verse describes a passage, and the chains name its condition.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צרר
tsarar
to bind, press in, or constrict
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim carries tzar, narrowness, in its dual form: the name holds the image of the two narrows. Here its labor is named at the source of a passage whose people are explicitly bound, so constriction echoes through both the place-name and the chains.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: narrow, tight, constricted
צַר
This is the narrowness carried in Mitzrayim’s name, giving Egypt’s place in the verse a nature as well as a location.
tsarah: distress, trouble
צָרָה
This branch names the pressure of constriction from within, resonating with the verse’s bound arrival.
יְגִיעַ
yegi'a
GROWS FROM
יגע
yagaʿ
to toil or grow weary from labor
The Hebrew word can hold both toil and what toil produces, so “labour of Egypt” carries human effort and its yield together. Beside the chains, the word keeps the human cost of transferred wealth in view.
ALSO GROWS
yagaʿ: to toil or grow weary
יָגַע
This verb makes the effort and fatigue inside the word for Egypt’s labour audible.
yāgēaʿ: weary, worn from labor
יָגֵעַ
This branch brings the fatigue behind what is transferred into view.
THE PATTERN
Peoples beyond the addressed community bow or confess when the presence and rule of God become unmistakable.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.THE THREAD
And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.The same Hebrew root עבר (ʿavar, cross or pass through) appears here for the flame that “passed between” the pieces. Isaiah repeats that crossing verb for people arriving “in chains”: the root marks passage, while the surrounding words reveal its condition.
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