What Does Isaiah 7:21 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
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 behind “nourish” means “keep alive,” so even in a narrowed world the verse centers what remains alive.
THE MEANING
You are shown a narrowed household: one young cow and two sheep are what a person keeps alive. The verb reaches beyond feeding to making live, placing the verse’s weight on life continuing through what remains.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that only abundance can sustain life loosens here: the verse gives its attention to one cow and two sheep, and to their continued life.
THE ROOT
יְחַיֶּה
yechayyeh
GROWS FROM
חיה
ḥ-y-h
Live; cause to live, keep alive.
The verb translated “nourish” grows from the root for life: the image is not merely food being given, but life being kept going. English separates feeding from living, while this Hebrew verb holds the sustaining act and its result together.
ALSO GROWS
chai: Alive; living.
חַי
This familiar branch names the state the man’s care preserves: the animals remain alive.
chayyim: Life; living existence.
חַיִּים
The same root makes the small herd part of a larger image of life continuing, even when the household has contracted.
THE PATTERN
Life continues through what remains when abundance has contracted.
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?THE THREAD
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.Isaiah’s verb for keeping the animals alive and Deuteronomy’s verb for a person living both grow from חיה (ḥ-y-h), “live.” The shared root joins the life sustained in a small household to the life sustained beyond bread.
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