What Does Isaiah 59:21 Mean in the King James?
As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
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 covenant carries God’s breath and words through your mouth into the mouths of generations after you.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s breath rests upon you, and the words placed in your mouth remain present in what you speak. The promise reaches beyond you, continuing through your children and their children. Its life is spoken forward from this moment on.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God’s presence or word ends with one person’s experience. The verse describes what is placed in your mouth as continuing through generations.
THE ROOT
רוּחִי
ruachi
GROWS FROM
ר־ו־ח
r-w-ḥ
Breath or wind; that which moves and animates.
The Hebrew word ruach carries the meanings of breath, wind, and spirit together. Here, God’s ruach rests upon you and is joined to words spoken from your mouth: divine presence is expressed as living breath and speech.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind
רוּחַ
This sense shows the same moving force of God’s ruach, now perceived as wind.
ruach: Breath
רוּחַ
This sense brings the verse’s spirit language into the living breath from which speech emerges.
דְּבָרַי
devarai
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; the related noun can mean a word, matter, or thing.
Davar can name both a spoken word and a matter or thing. The words placed in your mouth are not detached sounds: they are speech carried into the lives of those who follow.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
This noun joins what is spoken with the matter being spoken about.
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֵּר
The verb makes the speaking action inside the word root audible in this verse’s image of words in the mouth.
זַרְעֲךָ
zar'akha
GROWS FROM
ז־ר־ע
z-r-ʿ
To sow; seed or offspring.
The same Hebrew word can mean seed and offspring, connecting what is sown with the generations that grow from it. The verse carries God’s words from your mouth into your seed’s mouth, then onward to your seed’s seed.
ALSO GROWS
zeraʿ: Seed or offspring
זֶרַע
This noun holds both the seed that is sown and the descendants named in the verse.
zaraʿ: To sow
זָרַע
The verb echoes the image of what is planted continuing to bear life beyond the one who first receives it.
THE PATTERN
What God places among people continues through living speech from one generation to the next.
But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:THE THREAD
But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.The word here is דָּבָר (davar), the same root as the words placed in your mouth in Isaiah. Deuteronomy says the word is already near, in your mouth and heart, while Isaiah shows that this nearness continues through the mouths of generations.
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