What Does Isaiah 5:12 Mean in the King James?
And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
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
A room can be full of music and wine while the work of the LORD’s hands remains unseen.
THE MEANING
Music, wine, and celebration fill the scene, while the LORD’s work stays outside their attention. The verse names a blindness that can live inside abundance: what is present before you can remain unrecognized even while your senses are occupied. Its question reaches you now: what fills the moment while the work sustaining it goes unseen?
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a lively, abundant moment proves its participants are attentive to what sustains them; celebration and inattention can exist side by side.
THE ROOT
רָאוּ
ra'u
GROWS FROM
ראה
ra'ah
To see, look, or perceive.
The Hebrew says they do not see the work of the LORD’s hands, where the KJV says they do not consider it. The word holds seeing and perception together: the work can be before their eyes without being recognized for what it is.
ALSO GROWS
ro'eh: One who sees; a seer.
רֹאֶה
This form presents seeing as an active capacity, echoing the verse’s concern with whether the work is truly perceived.
mar'eh: Appearance; vision.
מַרְאֶה
What appears before the eyes is not necessarily recognized; the verse distinguishes having a scene from perceiving its source.
יַבִּיטוּ
yabbîṭû
GROWS FROM
נבט
nabat
To look toward, gaze at, or regard.
“regard” in this verse is yabbîṭû. This verb points to where the gaze is directed. The scene is full of music and wine, but the LORD’s work is not what they turn their attention toward.
ALSO GROWS
hibbit: To look toward or gaze at.
הִבִּיט
The verb makes regard an orientation of attention, which the verse says is missing from the revelers’ view of the LORD’s work.
mabbat: A look, gaze, or view.
מַבָּט
The related noun names the act or direction of looking, bringing the verse’s lack of regard into focus as a failure of attention.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s work is present in what surrounds us, yet it can remain unseen when attention is occupied elsewhere.
These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:THE THREAD
Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.Isaiah uses ראה (ra’ah, see) where the KJV says the revelers do not consider the work of the LORD’s hands; Psalm 66:5 uses the same root to invite, “Come and see.” The same seeing that fails in Isaiah becomes an opening toward noticing the work of God.
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