What Does Isaiah 63:4 Mean in the King James?
For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
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 verse holds reclamation and vengeance in one heart: the redeemed arrive with a reckoning.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of vengeance held in the speaker’s heart and the year of the redeemed arriving. It places reclamation and reckoning in the same moment, without softening either.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that deliverance always comes without a reckoning: this verse names vengeance as part of the arrival.
THE ROOT
גְּאוּלַי
ge’ulay
GROWS FROM
גאל
gā’al
to reclaim or redeem, especially in the role of a close kinsman
The word carries the sense of reclamation through kinship: the redeemed are people reclaimed by one who is bound to them. Here that reclamation shares the verse with vengeance, so the arrival holds both rescue and reckoning.
ALSO GROWS
go’el: kinsman-redeemer
גֹּאֵל
This branch makes the relational force of “redeemed” visible: reclamation comes through a near relation.
ge’ullah: redemption or reclamation
גְּאֻלָּה
The same root names the act of reclaiming, linking the redeemed people to the act that brings them back.
נָקָם
nāqām
GROWS FROM
נקם
nāqam
to avenge or exact vengeance
“vengeance” in this verse is nāqām. This word names an act of answering a wrong, not simply anger as an inner mood. The verse places that act in the speaker’s heart, then marks the year of the redeemed as arrived.
ALSO GROWS
nōqēm: one who avenges
נֹקֵם
This branch shows the root as an agent’s action, sharpening the force of vengeance held in the speaker’s heart.
niqmāh: vengeance or requital
נִקְמָה
This related form keeps the focus on answering a wrong, the reckoning paired here with the redeemed year.
THE PATTERN
Scripture frames divine vengeance as an arriving act of reckoning that stands alongside deliverance.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.THE THREAD
For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.Both verses use the root נקם (nāqam) for vengeance and pair it with a day and a year. That repeated structure presents vengeance as an appointed reckoning arriving alongside the reclaiming of the redeemed.
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