What Does Isaiah 59:5 Mean in the King James?
They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
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 same Hebrew verb governs both “hatch” and “breaketh out”: what they open is what comes forth.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now about what harmful making releases: what is taken in ends in death, and what is broken open yields a viper. The spider’s web stands beside the brood as another product whose intricate making does not make it safe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that careful craft or a harmless-looking beginning guarantees a harmless result; what matters here is what the work releases.
THE ROOT
בִּקֵּעוּ
biqqeʿu
GROWS FROM
בקע
b-q-ʿ
Split, cleave, break open.
“hatch / breaketh out” in this verse is biqqeʿu. Hebrew repeats בקע: they “hatch” the eggs, and what is opened “breaks out” into a viper. The same opening that exposes the egg also unleashes what it contains, so the harm is what this work brings forth.
ALSO GROWS
bāqaʿ: To cleave or open apart; used of dividing the sea in Exodus 14:16.
בָּקַע
The same opening verb can describe either the release of a viper here or the opening of a passage through the sea.
biqʿāh: A split or cleft in the land.
בִּקְעָה
The verb’s image of opening also names the cleft that remains in the earth.
THE PATTERN
Whatever a person cultivates eventually gives form to its own nature.
Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood.Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.THE THREAD
But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.The Hebrew root בקע (b-q-ʿ, split open) appears in Isaiah’s hatching and breaking out, and in the command to divide the sea. Here an opening releases a viper; there, a divided barrier exposes dry ground.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us