What Does Isaiah 55:5 Mean in the King James?
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
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
God’s glory adorns you so visibly that even strangers run toward you.
THE MEANING
You can call people you do not yet know, and people who have not known you can run toward you. Their movement gathers around the LORD your God and the set-apart one of Israel, because he has adorned you with his beauty.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You must already be known and understood before you can draw people toward what God is doing through you.
THE ROOT
פֵּאֲרָךְ
pe'arekha
GROWS FROM
פאר
pa'ar
to adorn, beautify, or make glorious
“glorified” in this verse is pe'arekha. The verb holds glory as visible adornment: God makes beauty apparent on you. The verse links that beauty with the movement of people who have never known you.
ALSO GROWS
tif'eret: beauty, ornament, splendor
תִּפְאֶרֶת
This branch shows glory as a beauty that can be seen, matching the verse’s image of people drawn toward you.
pe'er: headdress or ornament
פְּאֵר
This word makes the root’s sense of adornment concrete: what God gives you becomes visible, like an ornament.
תֵדַע
teida
GROWS FROM
ידע
yada
to know, perceive, or recognize through encounter
“knowest / knew” in this verse is teida. The same root appears on both sides: you call people you do not yet know, and people who have not known you run toward you. The repeated word makes prior familiarity unnecessary for connection to begin.
ALSO GROWS
da'at: knowledge or perception
דַּעַת
It carries the same root into the noun for knowledge, grounding the verse’s knowing in perception rather than mere information.
moda: acquaintance or kinsman
מוֹדָע
This branch points toward personal familiarity, making the verse’s welcome of the not-yet-known especially clear.
תִּקְרָא
tiqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
to call out or summon
This call is more than naming someone; it summons them into reach. The same root also appears in words for reading aloud and gathering, so a call can open into a meeting.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: a convocation or public reading
מִקְרָא
The branch shows a call becoming a gathering, as people beyond your familiar circle assemble in response.
qeri'ah: a calling or reading aloud
קְרִיאָה
It preserves both voice and invitation in the root, illuminating the verse’s call that reaches people who do not yet know you.
THE PATTERN
When God’s character becomes visible in a person, people beyond their familiar circle are drawn toward it.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.THE THREAD
Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.Isaiah 60:9 repeats פֵּאֲרָךְ (pe’arekha, “he has adorned or glorified you”) from this verse. The shared root connects God’s adornment of you with distant peoples coming toward you.
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