What Does Isaiah 55:3 Mean in the King James?
Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
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 “soul” that lives is the whole person, and life opens through hearing that receives and responds within a covenant of faithful love.
THE MEANING
As you turn toward God and hear, your whole living self comes alive. The covenant spans the ages, held by firm, steady faithful love bound to David’s promise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that your life depends on self-sufficiency gives way: life comes through receiving and responding to God’s voice, within a promise already made firm.
THE ROOT
שִׁמְעוּ
shim'u
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear or listen; in this use, hearing includes receiving and responding.
English can make “hear” sound like sound merely entering the ear, but shema carries the sense of hearing and responding. The sequence, incline, come, hear, shows listening opening into life.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear; hear and respond
שְׁמַע
It makes the verse’s hearing active: the voice is received, not merely noticed.
shemu'ah: Report, tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
What is heard can become a message that reaches and shapes the hearer.
נַפְשְׁכֶם
nafsh'khem
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self: a person in the fullness of their life.
Nefesh names the whole living self, not a detachable inner part. English can divide this word’s range among “soul,” “life,” and “person,” making “your soul shall live” sound narrower than the whole-person life the Hebrew holds together.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, person
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the noun in the verse with “your” attached; the promise concerns you as a whole living person.
nafash: Be refreshed, rest
נָפַשׁ
The same consonants also form a verb for being refreshed, giving the promise of life a restorative dimension.
חַסְדֵּי
chasdei
GROWS FROM
חסד
Faithful love: durable loyalty expressed in relationship.
Alongside the mercies carried by the English, chesed reveals faithful love as durable covenant loyalty. A related form describes a faithful person, showing this love as lived and relational.
ALSO GROWS
chesed: Faithful love
חֶסֶד
This is the enduring love at the heart of the covenant named in the verse.
chasid: A faithful or devoted person
חָסִיד
The related form shows the root’s relational character in a person marked by devotion.
THE PATTERN
When hearing receives and answers God’s voice, life reaches the whole person.
That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.THE THREAD
And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.Acts repeats Isaiah’s phrase “the sure mercies of David” and places it beside life beyond corruption. That connection opens the covenant’s promise of life as something held firm even through death.
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