What Does Isaiah 57:11 Mean in the King James?
And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?
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 one you fear is already governing what you say, remember, and hold in your heart.
THE MEANING
You fear someone enough to lie, while leaving God out of memory and out of your heart. Even when God has held silence for a long time, that silence does not mean God has disappeared. The verse exposes the imbalance between the one who frightens you and the one you do not fear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s silence means he is absent or powerless, so the person who threatens you is the one you must fear.
THE ROOT
תִּירָאִי
tîrāʾî
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear or stand in awe; the sense shifts with its object, from fear of danger or people to awe of God.
“feared” in this verse is tîrāʾî. The opening asks whom you fear, and the closing uses the same verb to ask why you do not fear God. The root stays the same while its object changes, revealing how fear can be misdirected.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾah: Fear, awe
יִרְאָה
This noun can name more than panic: it can describe the awe that shapes what the heart treats as worthy of regard.
mora: Dread, awe
מוֹרָא
This word from the same root family appears in Isaiah 8:13 for God as the proper object of fear, sharpening the contrast in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Fear relocates the heart’s allegiance when human threat is given more weight than God.
Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.THE THREAD
Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.The Hebrew word for “fear” here belongs to the same root family as the fear in Isaiah 57:11. The connection makes the rebuke sharper: the issue is not that fear exists, but that another has received the awe that belongs to God.
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