What Does Isaiah 45:2 Mean in the King James?
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
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 passage opens from ahead of you: the one who goes before you also levels the way and breaks its barriers.
THE MEANING
The voice in this verse goes ahead of you: uneven ground becomes passable, and barriers that seem sealed are broken open. The way is made straight as the gates and bars give way; the route opens from the far side of what blocks it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must clear every obstacle before the way can open: the one who goes before you is already leveling the route and breaking the barriers.
THE ROOT
אֲיַשֵּׁר
ʾayashēr
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
To be straight, level, or upright.
English “straight” can sound like moral correction, but this root also describes level ground and an unobstructed way through. Here, straightening means that the route itself becomes passable.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, level, upright.
יָשָׁר
This root word carries both the shape of a clear path and the sense of what is aligned.
mishor: Level ground, a plain.
מִישׁוֹר
Isaiah 40:4 uses this related word for a leveled way, showing the root’s concrete sense of making passage even.
yosher: Uprightness, straightness.
יֹשֶׁר
The same root can describe uprightness as well as a level route, linking the path’s physical clearing with alignment.
THE PATTERN
The way opens when what blocks or distorts passage is lowered, straightened, or broken.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;THE THREAD
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:Isaiah 40:4 uses מִישׁוֹר (mishor), “level ground,” from the same ישר (y-sh-r) root as “I will make straight” here. The shared root shows the promise as the making of a traversable route, while Isaiah 40:4 expands the image to valleys, heights, and rough ground.
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