What Does Isaiah 7:23 Mean in the King James?

And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.

Isaiah 7:23 · 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

The Hebrew name for the first brier echoes the root for guarding: the prized vineyard becomes a boundary of thorn growth.

THE MEANING

A place once prized for its abundance now yields briers and thorns. The verse speaks in the reader’s present: value by itself does not keep a fruitful place yielding.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie this verse undoes is that what is valuable or abundant will keep producing on its own.

THE ROOT

שָׁמִיר

shamir

GROWS FROM

שמר

Keep, guard, watch over.

“briers” in this verse is shamir. English gives only a plant name, but ⁨שָׁמִיר⁩ (shamir, brier) is lexically linked to ⁨שָׁמַר⁩ (shamar, keep or guard). Against the valuable vineyard, that link lets the brier suggest a guarding barrier: cultivated abundance has given way to growth that blocks access.

ALSO GROWS

shamar: To keep, guard, watch.

שָׁמַר

This verb is the root linked to the brier noun, placing the thorn within a word family of keeping and guarding.

mishmeret: Charge, watch, guard.

מִשְׁמֶרֶת

The same root names a watch or assigned keeping, reinforcing the image of a boundary where the verse once described yielding vines.

THE PATTERN

Thorns mark the occupation or choking of places meant to yield life.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Genesis 3:18 · KJVGround that feeds the reader also brings forth thorns, entwining provision with obstruction.

And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

Isaiah 5:6 · KJVThe vineyard’s briers and thorns show cultivated ground giving way to overgrowth.

And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

Matthew 13:7 · KJVHere thorns overtake the seed and choke what could grow.

THE THREAD

And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

Isaiah 5:6 · KJV

This verse pairs the same brier and thorn words with a vineyard that is no longer pruned or dug. That sharpens the image here: a place once cultivated for fruit is now marked by thorn growth.

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