What Does Isaiah 64:1 Mean in the King James?
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
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 prayer asks for heaven’s boundary to be torn open so completely that even mountains lose their fixed form in the presence that comes near.
THE MEANING
Your longing for God’s nearness is pictured as a breach in the heavens: the distance opens, and God comes down. In that presence, even mountains lose their fixedness and flow like water. The image lets the ache for divine nearness remain as vast as the change it seeks.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that the distance between God and the reader is fixed, or that what seems immovable must remain so.
THE ROOT
קָרַעְתָּ
qara'ta
GROWS FROM
קרע
qara'
to tear, split, or rend
“rend” in this verse is qara'ta. The verse uses the language of tearing for the heavens themselves: the barrier does not merely open a little; it is ripped. This same root can describe tearing clothing or tearing open the heart, joining an outward breach with an inward one.
ALSO GROWS
vayyiqra: and he tore
וַיִּקְרַע
When Reuben finds Joseph missing, he tears his clothes (Genesis 37:29); the same root makes the heavens’ rending a vivid breach in what had seemed whole.
veqir'u: and tear
וְקִרְעוּ
Joel uses this root for tearing the heart rather than the garments (Joel 2:13), showing how a physical tear can also expose what lies within.
יָרַדְתָּ
yaradta
GROWS FROM
ירד
yarad
to descend, go down
“come down” in this verse is yaradta. The movement is toward the reader: the prayer does not ask for a message sent from far away, but for God to descend. The root carries this passage from a torn boundary into nearness, where presence reaches what is below.
ALSO GROWS
vayered: and he came down
וַיֵּרֶד
In Genesis 11:5, the LORD comes down to see the city and tower; the same verb turns divine nearness into a movement toward human life.
tered: you will go down
תֵּרֵד
This form appears in the warning that the stranger will rise while Israel goes down (Deuteronomy 28:43), showing the root can name a movement from height to lowliness.
נָזֹלּוּ
nazolu
GROWS FROM
נזל
nazal
to flow, drip, or stream
“flow down” in this verse is nazolu. The mountains do not merely shake: the verb pictures them flowing down as water. The root connects the overwhelming presence of God with a world whose solid forms give way and pour out.
ALSO GROWS
nozlim: flowing streams
נֹזְלִים
Song of Songs 4:15 calls the streams from Lebanon flowing waters; this branch makes Isaiah’s mountains seem to dissolve into a current.
tizal: will drip, will distill
תִּזַל
In Deuteronomy 32:2, the teaching drips like rain and distills like dew; the same root gives Isaiah’s mountains the motion of falling water.
THE PATTERN
When divine presence comes near, the boundary between heaven and earth gives way and the created world answers that nearness.
Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.Both verses use יָרַד (yarad), meaning to descend or come down, and ask for the heavens to open. The psalm’s mountains smoke at God’s touch, while Isaiah’s flow down, revealing two images of the landscape answering the same descent.
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