What Does Isaiah 7:1 Mean in the King James?

And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.

Isaiah 7:1 · 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

A threat can rise against wholeness without gaining the power to undo it.

THE MEANING

You can face a real threat without that threat having the capacity to prevail; the verse holds both truths in view. Jerusalem, whose name carries the language of wholeness, stands under attack without being overcome.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that an advancing threat has already won: movement toward you is not the same as power over you.

THE ROOT

יָכֹל

yākōl

GROWS FROM

יכל

To be able, to have capacity.

“could not prevail” in this verse is yākōl. The Hebrew expresses the attackers’ limit as inability: they cannot carry their assault through to prevailing. English “prevail” can sound like a victory won in battle, while the root keeps attention on the limit of what the attackers can do.

ALSO GROWS

yākōl: Be able, can.

יָכֹל

This is the form behind the verse’s statement that the attackers lack the capacity to prevail.

yekholet: Ability, capacity.

יְכֹלֶת

This related form makes the verse’s emphasis plain: an advancing force and a force with the capacity to overcome are not the same thing.

יְרוּשָׁלַיִם

Yerushalayim

GROWS FROM

שלם

Whole, complete, intact; the root carries the language of wholeness.

“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name brings the ⁨שׁלם⁩ field of wholeness into the scene: war rises against the city, but the verse does not equate the attack with the city’s undoing. The opposition is aimed at wholeness, yet it does not prevail.

ALSO GROWS

shalom: Wholeness, completeness.

שָׁלוֹם

This branch lets the name resonate with the wholeness under assault in the verse.

shalem: Whole, complete, intact.

שָׁלֵם

This branch sharpens the contrast between the attack and the intactness the verse says it cannot overcome.

shillēm: Repay, make good, restore what is owed.

שִׁלֵּם

This branch carries the root’s sense of making whole, deepening the contrast with a war that cannot undo the city.

THE PATTERN

An advancing force does not guarantee that it can accomplish what it intends.

Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

Isaiah 8:10 · KJVPlans and threats gather, but their advance does not make them able to stand.

The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.

Psalm 33:10 · KJVThe verse shows that an opposing people’s plans can come to nothing despite their intent.

But if it be of God, ye can not overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

Acts 5:39 · KJVThe attempt to overthrow something does not mean the attempt has the power to succeed.

THE THREAD

Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

Isaiah 8:10 · KJV

This verse extends the same pattern: plans and spoken threats may gather, yet their word does not stand. Its final phrase, “for God is with us,” places that limit in the presence of God.

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