What Does Isaiah 47:11 Mean in the King James?
Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
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 calamity comes beyond your foresight, and the Hebrew image beneath “put it off” says it cannot be covered away.
THE MEANING
The verse names the moment when what you cannot foresee arrives and fills the space you thought you controlled. You cannot trace its rise before it comes, and once it falls, you cannot cover it over. Its suddenness exposes the limits of certainty.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that not seeing danger keeps you safe, or that you can always conceal the damage after it arrives.
THE ROOT
כַּפְּרָהּ
kapperah
GROWS FROM
כפר
kaphar
To cover; in this verse, to cover over or avert what has come.
Under “put it off” is כפר (kaphar, “cover”), which gives the attempted escape the image of a covering laid over calamity. The same root describes coating the ark with pitch, making the verse’s limit concrete: this calamity cannot be sealed away.
ALSO GROWS
kaphar: To cover or coat with pitch.
כָּפַר
This is the verb used for covering the ark inside and out; it shows the physical covering beneath the verse’s language of trying to put calamity off.
kapporet: The cover of the ark, traditionally called the mercy seat.
כַּפֹּרֶת
This noun names a literal covering from the same root, echoing the verse’s image of a calamity that cannot be covered over.
THE PATTERN
What people assume they can control or keep secure can arrive suddenly beyond their power to avert.
Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.THE THREAD
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.The verb translated “put it off” in Isaiah and “pitch it” here share כפר (kaphar, “cover”). Genesis uses that covering to seal the ark; Isaiah shows the limit of that same act when calamity cannot be covered away.
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