What Does Isaiah 63:2 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?
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 wine-treader’s way is written in red on his garment: what is crushed leaves a mark on the one who treads.
THE MEANING
The question asks you to read the red apparel through the image of someone treading a winepress. The clothing holds the visible trace of crushing, so the figure’s work is written on his appearance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the one who crushes remains untouched: the image places the red mark on the treader’s own clothing.
THE ROOT
דֹּרֵךְ
dōrēkh
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread, step, or trample.
“treadeth” in this verse is dōrēkh. The same word family connects treading with דרך (derek), a way or path: a way is a track made by steps. Here the red garment makes the treader’s work visible, as though the path of crushing were written on him.
ALSO GROWS
derek: Way, path
דֶּרֶךְ
A path is the track made by treading; the winepress image carries this echo of a way marked underfoot.
midrakh: Footstep, place for treading
מִדְרָךְ
This branch names where the foot lands, bringing the force of the treader’s steps into the image.
אָדֹם
adom
GROWS FROM
אדם
ʾ-d-m
Red or ruddy; the same consonants appear in words for human and ground.
The red word shares its consonants with אָדָם (adam, human) and אֲדָמָה (adamah, ground), drawing the color toward the earth-born human world. Beside the winepress image, that red can also suggest the visible mark of what has been crushed.
ALSO GROWS
adam: Human, ground-being
אָדָם
The shared consonants link the garment’s red with the human being formed from the ground.
adamah: Ground, soil
אֲדָמָה
The same word family connects redness with the ground, giving the color an earthy depth.
Edom: Edom; red
אֱדוֹם
The name echoes the color, linking the red apparel with the red-named place in the surrounding passage.
THE PATTERN
In the winepress image, crushing becomes visible through the stain carried by garments and blood.
Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.THE THREAD
I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.The verb behind “treadeth” returns in “I have trodden,” turning the comparison into the speaker’s own account. This line names blood on the garments, revealing what verse 2’s red image leaves unsaid.
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