What Does Isaiah 47:15 Mean in the King James?
Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.
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 people who share your labor can scatter to their own sides, because shared gain is not deliverance.
THE MEANING
The people tied to your effort can scatter into their own places when you need them. Shared trade and years of labor do not make them able to bring you out; your network cannot deliver you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that people who benefit from your labor are therefore bound to stay and rescue you: shared gain is not the same as deliverance.
THE ROOT
מוֹשִׁיעֵךְ
môšîaʿēkh
GROWS FROM
ישע
ישע (yashaʿ) means deliver or rescue, bringing someone out of constriction into spaciousness.
The word for “save” carries the movement of being brought out into room. The merchants share your labor, but none becomes the one who brings you out.
ALSO GROWS
môšîaʿ: one who delivers
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This is the same deliverer form as the verse’s word, before its “you” suffix; the verse says no such rescuer is there.
yeshaʿ: deliverance, rescue
יֵשַׁע
The same root names the deliverance these merchants cannot provide.
yeshuʿah: deliverance, rescue
יְשׁוּעָה
This branch keeps the root’s movement out of danger visible in the verse’s stark absence of a deliverer.
יָגָעוּךְ
yāgāʿûkh
GROWS FROM
יגע
יגע (yāgaʿ) means to toil and grow weary.
“laboured” in this verse is yāgāʿûkh. The root holds labor and weariness together. The verse’s shared work has a cost, yet that bond does not keep the merchants from scattering.
ALSO GROWS
yāgaʿ: to toil, labor
יָגַע
This verb names the exertion present in the shared work.
yāgēaʿ: weary, exhausted
יָגֵעַ
This form makes the fatigue latent in that labor visible.
לְעֶבְרוֹ
ləʿevrô
GROWS FROM
עבר
עבר (ʿāvar) means to pass over or cross; words from this root can also name a side or region beyond.
“quarter” in this verse is ləʿevrô. The destination word names each person’s own side or region. The verse pictures everyone moving away to their own place, while no one crosses over to deliver you.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: to pass, cross over
עָבַר
This verb carries the movement that echoes each merchant going off to a separate place.
ʿēver: side, region beyond
עֵבֶר
This noun illuminates the verse’s picture of each person returning to their own side.
THE PATTERN
Human power, commercial networks, and stored wealth cannot deliver when crisis strips away their usefulness.
Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?THE THREAD
Salvation belongeth unto the LORD: thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah.Both verses draw on ישע (yashaʿ, deliver): Isaiah uses מוֹשִׁיעֵךְ (môšîaʿēkh, your deliverer), while the psalm names יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuʿah, deliverance) as belonging to the LORD. The shared root locates the failure in the human network, not in deliverance itself.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us