What Does Isaiah 53:8 Mean in the King James?
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
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 Hebrew verb for “cut off” also describes the Red Sea divided into parts: here the act that opens a way appears as a life violently severed.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a terrible scene in the present: a person is taken from confinement and judgment, then cut off from among the living. It names the people’s rebellion as bound to his being struck, while the question of his generation remains unanswered.
THE ROOT
נִגְזַר
nigzar
GROWS FROM
גזר
To cut, sever, or divide.
English “cut off” can sound like pure disappearance; the Hebrew form נִגְזַר (nigzar, cut off) comes from גזר (gazar, to cut or divide), whose other forms describe cutting something into parts. In Psalm 136:13, the same verb names the sea divided into sections, so this word can hold a severing that is also the opening of passage.
ALSO GROWS
gazar: To cut apart or divide.
גָּזַר
This verb is used for dividing the sea in Psalm 136:13, where cutting opens a passage.
gezerim: Parts or pieces.
גְּזָרִים
Psalm 136:13 uses this word for the Red Sea divided into parts, extending the root from a person’s severance to a divided barrier.
THE PATTERN
The language of severing holds both the loss of a life and a division that opens a passage.
To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever:In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.THE THREAD
To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever:Isaiah’s “cut off” and the psalm’s “divided … into parts” translate forms of גזר (gazar, to cut or divide). The word names both a life severed from the living and a sea split so passage opens, placing a startling image of division beside the verse’s violence.
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