What Does Jeremiah 10:22 Mean?
Look, the sound of the report comes, and a great quaking out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, and a den of jackals.
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
Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.THE KEY
The upheaval reaches the ear as a report and the ground as a shaking before it leaves the cities empty.
THE MEANING
You stand where a warning arrives as sound before its damage is visible: a report comes, then a great commotion from the north. The verse holds the consequence in view without softening it: Judah’s cities become desolate, a den of dragons.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that disaster is unreal until its damage is visible: here, the report already marks upheaval on its way.
THE ROOT
רַעַשׁ
raʿash
GROWS FROM
רעש
to shake, quake, or tremble
“a great quaking” in this verse is raʿash. The commotion belongs to the same root used for the earth trembling in Jeremiah 10:10. What English separates as a disturbance and a shaking is one movement in Hebrew: upheaval felt in the land.
ALSO GROWS
raʿash: to shake or quake
רָעַשׁ
The verb shows that the commotion is not only noise; it carries the force of physical shaking.
tirʿash: shall tremble
תִּרְעַשׁ
This form appears in Jeremiah 10:10, linking the commotion here to the earth’s trembling earlier in the chapter.
שְׁמוּעָה
shemuʿah
GROWS FROM
שמע
to hear, listen, or heed
“the sound of the report” in this verse is shemuʿah. The report is formed from the language of hearing: it is news that arrives to be heard. Set beside the word for shaking, it makes the warning audible before the desolation is seen.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: to hear, listen, or heed
שָׁמַע
The report’s root is hearing, so the verse begins with something that reaches a listener.
shemaʿ: report or tidings
שֵׁמַע
This related noun shows how hearing gives rise to the report that signals the coming commotion.
שְׁמָמָה
shemamah
GROWS FROM
שמם
to be desolate or appalled
“a desolation” in this verse is shemamah. The word holds ruin and stunned desolation together. The cities are not merely damaged; they become a place where human presence gives way to wildness.
ALSO GROWS
shamem: to be desolate or appalled
שָׁמֵם
The verbal form carries both the emptied state and the shock of seeing it.
shemamah: desolation or wasteland
שְׁמָמָה
This noun names the condition that overtakes the cities in the verse.
THE PATTERN
When upheaval approaches, it is heard as a signal and felt as a shaking before its full reach is visible.
But the LORD God is truth, he is the living God and king of the ages. At his outburst the earth quakes, and the nations cannot hold his seething.When I heard and responded, my belly trembled; my lips shook at the voice. Rot entered my bones, and beneath me I trembled, so that I might rest in the day of the narrow place. When he comes up against the people, he will cut into them with his troops.whose voice then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.”THE THREAD
But the LORD God is truth, he is the living God and king of the ages. At his outburst the earth quakes, and the nations cannot hold his seething.“Tremble” in verse 10 and “commotion” here share the Hebrew root רעש (raʿash), the language of shaking. The chapter moves from the earth trembling to a specific upheaval arriving from the north and leaving cities desolate.
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