What Does Isaiah 49:4 Mean in the King James?
Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work with my 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 speaker names the work as empty in outcome, yet places both the case and the work with God, so visible failure is not the final judgment.
THE MEANING
Your effort can look empty and still have a claim before the LORD and a place with God. Exhaustion names what you have spent; it does not, by itself, decide what the work means. The verse holds both realities without pretending the loss is small.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A result that looks empty proves the work has no value or standing.
THE ROOT
הֶבֶל
hebel
GROWS FROM
הבל
h-b-l
Vapor, transience; by extension, vanity or emptiness.
“in vain” in this verse is hebel. English repeats “vain” and “nought”; Hebrew gives the loss several shapes: לְרִיק (leriq, into emptiness), לְתֹהוּ (letohu, into desolation or chaos), and הֶבֶל (hebel, vapor or vanity). The lament makes the sense of futility feel complete before the verse turns to the speaker’s case and work with God.
ALSO GROWS
hebel: Vapor, vanity, something transient.
הֶבֶל
This is the verse’s image of an outcome that seems to vanish.
habal: To become empty or act vainly.
הָבַל
The related verb gives the sense of futility as a way an action appears, not proof that the action never mattered.
מִשְׁפָּטִי
mishpati
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge, decide, or administer justice.
מִשְׁפָּטִי (mishpati, my judgment or my case) can name the speaker’s claim or right as well as a judgment. The speaker places that case with the LORD, so the apparent result does not make the final ruling.
ALSO GROWS
shafat: To judge, decide, or govern.
שָׁפַט
The verb shows judgment as an act of deciding a matter.
mishpat: Judgment, justice, decision, or right.
מִשְׁפָּט
This noun holds both the act of judgment and the claim being brought before it.
פְּעֻלָּתִי
pe'ullati
GROWS FROM
פעל
p-ʿ-l
To do, act, or work.
“work” in this verse is pe'ullati. The word names the speaker’s deed or activity, which is still placed with God even after the speaker calls the outcome empty. The verse leaves the labor real while its visible result remains unresolved.
ALSO GROWS
pa'al: To act, do, or work.
פָּעַל
The root points to the action itself, not only what can be counted afterward.
po'el: One who acts or works; a worker.
פֹּעֵל
This branch connects the deed to the one doing it, while the verse places that work with God.
THE PATTERN
A fruitless appearance does not by itself settle a work’s standing; scripture places the work in relation to the LORD.
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.THE THREAD
But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.Here כֹּחִי (kochi, my strength) is spent; there כֹּחַ (koach, strength) is renewed for those who wait upon the LORD. The shared word lets exhaustion and renewal sit beside each other without erasing the speaker’s weariness.
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