What Does Isaiah 51:7 Mean in the King James?
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
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 alignment you know from within is anchored by instruction in your heart, beyond the reach of other people’s contempt.
THE MEANING
Your heart carries instruction that gives you an inward measure of alignment. The contempt and reviling of others may be real, but they do not become the measure of what you know or who you are.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being shamed by others proves you are out of alignment, or that their contempt has authority to name your nature.
THE ROOT
צֶדֶק
tzedek
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be right or just; rightness and alignment.
“righteousness” in this verse is tzedek. The root holds together the quality of alignment, the aligned person, and justice as its expression. Here, that knowing is joined to instruction carried in the heart, so contempt from others cannot become its measure.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: An aligned or righteous person
צַדִּיק
The same root names the person who embodies the alignment this verse says is known.
tsedaqah: Justice, righteousness
צְדָקָה
It shows the same alignment taking shape in how life is ordered and treated.
תּוֹרָה
torah
GROWS FROM
ירה
y-r-h
To point or direct; in its instructional form, to teach or instruct.
“law” in this verse is torah. The heart carries direction through the instruction. Torah shares its root with teaching and directing, so the verse pictures alignment as something already carried within.
ALSO GROWS
moreh: Teacher, instructor
מוֹרֶה
The teacher directs and instructs from the same root that gives Torah its sense of instruction.
horah: He instructed or directed
הוֹרָה
This verbal form makes the root’s movement into instruction explicit.
יֹדְעֵי
yod'ei
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know or perceive through recognition and encounter.
“Know righteousness” carries the sense of recognizing alignment through lived knowing. That knowing remains an inward perception even while others revile.
ALSO GROWS
da'at: Knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun names the knowledge that grows from the same knowing root.
yedi'ah: Knowing, recognition
יְדִיעָה
It shows the root as an ongoing state of knowing, not just a label attached to someone.
THE PATTERN
Inner instruction steadies a person to remain aligned when public voices shame or threaten them.
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled;THE THREAD
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.Isaiah places “my law” in the heart; Jeremiah uses the same Hebrew word, תּוֹרָה (torah, instruction), and says it is written within. The repeated word reveals the heart as the place where instruction is carried as a living direction.
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