What Does Isaiah 58:2 Mean in the King James?
Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
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 word for “seek” here is the same word Isaiah uses for “seek justice,” so the verse does not let devotion and justice become separate pursuits.
THE MEANING
You can seek God daily, want to know God’s ways, and enjoy nearness while leaving justice as something you request rather than something that shapes your conduct. The next lines place this claim beside how workers and the hungry are treated. Nearness to God reaches into ordinary dealings with others.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Seeking God every day and enjoying religious practice do not by themselves prove that your life is just. Desire for God’s presence can coexist with injustice.
THE ROOT
יִדְרֹשׁוּן
yidrōshûn from darash
GROWS FROM
דרש
The root דָּרַשׁ (darash) means to seek, inquire, or pursue.
“seek” in this verse is yidrōshûn from darash. This is more than a passing glance; the verb carries the sense of pursuing or inquiring. Isaiah 1:17 uses the same root for seeking justice, joining the pursuit of God to the pursuit of right treatment.
ALSO GROWS
midrash: inquiry or exposition
מִדְרָשׁ
This branch echoes the verse’s desire to know God’s ways as an active search.
doresh: one who seeks or inquires
דּוֹרֵשׁ
The seeker is defined by an ongoing pursuit, matching the verse’s “daily” seeking.
קִרְבַת
qirbat
GROWS FROM
קרב
The root קָרַב (qarab) means to draw near, approach, or bring close.
“approaching” in this verse is qirbat. The Hebrew phrase speaks of the nearness of God. The same root underlies korban, “drawing near,” so the language of devotion points toward closeness while the surrounding lines ask whether justice accompanies it.
ALSO GROWS
qarov: near, close
קָרוֹב
This branch makes the relational sense of approaching visible: the language is about nearness.
korban: drawing near
קָרְבָּן
The familiar religious word shares the root, linking devotion with the movement of drawing close.
מִשְׁפְּטֵי
mishpetei
GROWS FROM
שפט
The root שָׁפַט (shaphat) means to judge or decide a case; mishpat is judgment or justice.
The phrase is “judgments of righteousness”: justice is something they ask God for, while the surrounding passage tests whether it also shapes their conduct. The root points to decisions that govern how people are treated, not justice as an abstraction.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: to judge or decide a case
שָׁפַט
This verb shows the action contained in the judgment they ask about.
shofet: judge, one who decides a case
שֹׁפֵט
The human agent in this branch makes justice concrete in relationships and decisions.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats seeking God as inseparable from seeking and practicing justice.
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.THE THREAD
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.The word translated “seek” in Isaiah 58:2 is the same Hebrew root used here for “seek judgment.” That shared verb joins seeking God with seeking justice and with how the vulnerable are treated.
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