What Does Isaiah 51:1 Mean in the King James?
Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
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 path toward alignment opens by seeing that you were quarried from a source beyond yourself.
THE MEANING
You seek the LORD and pursue alignment; the verse turns your gaze to the rock and quarry from which you were cut. Your present identity is connected to a source and a formation that precede your own effort.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that your life begins with your own effort or that you are self-created.
THE ROOT
חֻצַּבְתֶּם
ḥuṣṣabtem
GROWS FROM
חצב
ḥ-ṣ-b
To hew, quarry, or cut out.
“hewn” in this verse is ḥuṣṣabtem. The word pictures you as material taken from a source and shaped through extraction. The verse asks you to see the source beneath your present form, not only the form itself.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṣab: To hew or cut stone.
חָצַב
The action behind “hewn” makes your origin a matter of being cut from something, not appearing from nowhere.
ḥōṣēv: One who hews; a hewer.
חֹצֵב
This related form makes the quarry image vivid: the rock is a source from which material is drawn.
צֶדֶק
ṣedeq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be right, just, or aligned.
“righteousness” in this verse is ṣedeq. The people addressed are pursuing alignment, and the verse pairs that pursuit with remembering their source. Alignment appears here as a path connected to where you come from.
ALSO GROWS
ṣaddiq: A just or aligned person.
צַדִּיק
This related word names the person characterized by the alignment being pursued.
ṣedaqah: Justice or righteousness; alignment.
צְדָקָה
This form shows the same root describing alignment as a quality or practice, not only an abstract idea.
THE PATTERN
The text links present identity to a source that formed or sustains it.
Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.THE THREAD
Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.The next verse names Abraham and Sarah, anchoring the rock and quarry image in the source from which this people comes. It then traces how one called person becomes many, making origin and increase part of the same picture.
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