What Does Isaiah 6:13 Mean in the King James?

But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

Isaiah 6:13 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The holy seed is the stump itself: what remains standing after even the remnant is burned.

THE MEANING

The passage holds devastation and survival together: even the tenth is burned, and what remains is like the stump of a felled tree. The holy seed is the standing core left after the visible life has been stripped away.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that life must remain whole to remain alive; here, the seed remains as a stump after the tree is cut down.

THE ROOT

מַצֶּבֶת

matstsevet

GROWS FROM

נצב

n-ts-b

To stand, be stationed, or take one’s stand.

The word rendered “substance” pictures a stump still standing after the tree is felled. The holy seed is not merely something stored inside the remnant; it is the standing remnant itself.

ALSO GROWS

nitzav: Standing, stationed; “settled” in Psalm 119:89.

נִצָּב

The same root describes what remains in place when the tree has been cut down.

matstsebah: A standing stone or pillar.

מַצֵּבָה

Like the stump, it names something set upright that remains as a marker after what surrounded it has changed.

THE PATTERN

Life can remain in the core of what has been cut down and emerge as new growth.

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

Isaiah 11:1 · KJVNew growth comes from what remains rooted after the visible tree has been reduced.

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

Job 14:7 · KJVThe cut tree still holds the possibility of a sprout.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

John 12:24 · KJVWhat appears to end can become the hidden beginning of fruit.

THE THREAD

For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

Psalm 119:89 · KJV

The Hebrew word rendered “settled” comes from the same root, ⁨נצב⁩ (n-ts-b), as the stump rendered “substance” here. In Isaiah, the tree’s stump stands after the cutting; in the psalm, the word stands in heaven.

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