What Does Isaiah 61:3 Mean in the King James?
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
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 turns ashes into adornment with a shift in sound, then uses that same adornment root for the LORD being glorified.
THE MEANING
Your grief is met with a change in what covers you: ashes give way to adornment, mourning to joy, and a dimmed breath to praise. You are named as a tree of alignment because you are the LORD’s planting; the growth is received before it is displayed. The beauty that covers you becomes the LORD’s visible honor.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Grief has left only ruin, so nothing beautiful can grow from you.
THE ROOT
פְּאֵר
pe’er
GROWS FROM
פאר
To adorn or beautify; by extension, to glory.
פְּאֵר (pe’er, adornment) and אֵפֶר (ʾepher, ashes) carry the same consonants in a different order. The verse ends with לְהִתְפָּאֵר (lehitpa’er, to be glorified), the same root as “beauty”: the adornment given to mourners becomes the LORD’s display.
ALSO GROWS
pe’er: Adornment or headdress.
פְּאֵר
The same word names the adornment that replaces ashes in this verse.
lehitpa’er: To adorn oneself or be glorified.
לְהִתְפָּאֵר
The verse’s final word returns to the root of “beauty,” linking the mourners’ adornment with the LORD’s glory.
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
Wind or air in motion; breath.
The phrase “spirit of heaviness” uses ruach, the word that also means wind and breath. Here the breath itself is described as dimmed; praise covers that heaviness rather than treating it as a separate, fixed identity.
ALSO GROWS
ruach Elohim: Wind or breath of God.
רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים
At creation, the same word names God’s movement over the waters (Genesis 1:2).
ruach chayyim: Breath of life.
רוּחַ חַיִּים
The phrase names the breath in living creatures (Genesis 6:17).
צֶדֶק
tzedek
GROWS FROM
צדק
Justice or alignment.
“righteousness” in this verse is tzedek. The trees are called trees of alignment, then immediately described as the LORD’s planting. Their alignment is the visible shape of life rooted in that planting.
ALSO GROWS
tzedek: Justice or alignment.
צֶדֶק
This is the root behind “righteousness” in the verse’s description of the trees.
tzaddiq: A just or aligned person.
צַדִּיק
The related form applies the same root to a person whose life expresses alignment.
THE PATTERN
Grief is met by a change in what covers a person and what their life can express.
Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.THE THREAD
Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.This verse repeats the root צֶדֶק (tzedek, alignment) and pairs it with the LORD’s planting, just as Isaiah 61:3 does. Its closing “glorified” also returns to פאר, the root behind “beauty,” tying rooted life and adornment to the LORD’s visible honor.
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