What Does Jeremiah 16:9 Mean?
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will stop from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of leaping and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
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 of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.THE KEY
The loss is measured by what can no longer be heard: not only joy, but the shared voices of celebration and marriage.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now of a life in which celebration falls silent within the reader’s own days. It names both mirth and gladness and the voices of bridegroom and bride, so the loss reaches shared joy and marriage itself.
THE ROOT
מַשְׁבִּית
mashbit
GROWS FROM
שבת
cease, stop, rest; in this form, cause something to cease
The verb is causative: the voices are not merely absent; they are made to stop. The same root gives Shabbat, cessation as rest, while here it names the loss of celebration.
ALSO GROWS
shavat: to cease, stop, or rest
שָׁבַת
This verbal form shows the basic action behind the verse’s causative wording.
Shabbat: Sabbath, a day of cessation and rest
שַׁבָּת
The same root can name cessation as rest; here, what ceases is the sound of communal joy.
חָתָן
chatan
GROWS FROM
חתן
marriage relation or kinship by marriage
This word belongs to a family of terms for marriage and its kinship bonds. The bridegroom’s voice therefore carries the sound of a joining between households, alongside the bride’s voice.
ALSO GROWS
chatunnah: wedding
חֲתֻנָּה
The groom’s voice is part of the public celebration of the marriage itself.
choten: father-in-law
חוֹתֵן
This related term shows how marriage creates bonds that extend beyond the couple.
שָׂשׂוֹן
sason
GROWS FROM
שׂושׂ
rejoice, exult
“leaping” in this verse is sason. The word translated “mirth” comes from a verb of exulting. Paired with gladness, it makes the silence reach beyond quiet contentment to the outward expression of joy.
ALSO GROWS
sus: to rejoice or exult
שׂוּשׂ
This verbal form is the action carried by the noun “mirth.”
masos: joy or delight
מָשׂוֹשׂ
This related noun shows the root’s reach into joy as a source of delight.
THE PATTERN
Scripture renders a community’s devastation through the familiar sounds of celebration and marriage falling silent.
Then I will stop from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall be emptied.The leaping of the tambourines rests, the roar of those who leap is stilled, the joy of the lyre rests.And the light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in you; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in you; for your traders were the great ones of the earth; for by your potions all nations were made to wander.THE THREAD
And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he stopped on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.Genesis uses וַיִּשְׁבֹּת (vayishbot, “he ceased/rested”), from the same root שָׁבַת (shavat, “cease, rest”) as Jeremiah’s מַשְׁבִּית (mashbit, “cause to cease”). Work ceases there; here the voices of joy cease, showing how the same root can name rest or loss according to what is brought to an end.
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