What Does Jeremiah 10:18 Mean?
For thus says the LORD, Here I am, slinging out those who settle in the land with this stroke, and I will press them, so that they may find it so.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.THE KEY
The verse’s deepest force is spatial: settled inhabitants are slung from their place and pressed into narrowness until they encounter the result.
THE MEANING
You meet a judgment that is physical and severe: the LORD declares that he will sling the land’s inhabitants out at once and constrict them, so they “find it so.” The verse turns distress from an inward feeling into narrowing and forced displacement.
THE ROOT
וְהֵצֵרוֹתִי
wəhēṣērōtî
GROWS FROM
צרר
ṣ-r-r
To bind or tie tightly, and by extension to press in or constrict.
“press” in this verse is wəhēṣērōtî. The root gives “distress” a physical edge: it is pressure that binds and narrows. Its sound-shape echoes צַר (ṣar, narrow or tight) and מִצְרַיִם (Miṣrayim, Egypt, the two narrows), so the verse presents distress as being pressed into a constricted place.
ALSO GROWS
ṣārāh: Distress, trouble, or a tight situation.
צָרָה
This related noun names the trouble that results when a person is pressed in.
ṣərōr: A bound bundle or small packet.
צְרוֹר
The same root can describe things tied together, making the verse’s distress feel like pressure closing around its inhabitants.
יֹשְׁבֵי
yōšəvē
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-š-b
To sit, remain, or dwell.
“those who settle” in this verse is yōšəvē. The Hebrew names these people as dwellers before saying they are slung away. The verse sets settled life against forced movement, turning “inhabitants” into a sharper picture of people uprooted from where they live.
ALSO GROWS
yāšav: To sit, remain, or dwell.
יָשַׁב
This verb lies behind the label for those living in the land, directly contrasting with their removal.
mōšāv: A dwelling place, seat, or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This related word keeps the idea of a settled place in view as the verse overturns it.
קוֹלֵעַ
qōlēaʿ
GROWS FROM
קלע
q-l-ʿ
To sling or hurl by means of a sling.
“Here I am, slinging out” in this verse is qōlēaʿ. The Hebrew verb gives the expulsion the trajectory of a projectile: the inhabitants are launched out of the land. The wording makes removal forceful and bodily, not a quiet departure.
ALSO GROWS
qālaʿ: To sling or hurl.
קָלַע
This verbal form makes clear that the verse’s removal is an act of force.
qelaʿ: A sling, and in another biblical use, a hanging curtain or panel.
קֶלַע
The noun names the instrument behind the verse’s image: a sling sends what it holds away from its place.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays judgment as forced displacement from a place of security into exposure or exile.
And the LORD uprooted them from their soil in the burning of anger, in heat, and in great outburst, and sent them into another land, as it is this day.Yet a man has risen to pursue you, and to seek your living soul. But the living soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your God, and the living souls of your enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.But the children of the governance will be thrown out into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.THE THREAD
Yet a man has risen to pursue you, and to seek your living soul. But the living soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD your God, and the living souls of your enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.The Hebrew verb for “sling out” in Jeremiah shares its root with the verb in Abigail’s image of God slinging enemies from a sling. Her line sets a life held in a bound bundle beside enemies hurled away, making Jeremiah’s forceful image unmistakable.
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