What Does Jeremiah 18:16 Mean?
To make their land stunned, and a whistling of the ages. Everyone who crosses by it shall be stunned, and shake his head.
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
To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.THE KEY
The land’s desolation and the passerby’s astonishment grow from the same Hebrew root: the ruin outside becomes the shock within.
THE MEANING
This verse holds up devastation that remains visible through the ages: the land is desolate, and its condition becomes a hissing sign. Whoever passes is appalled and shakes their head; the ruin outside becomes a shock carried in the body.
THE ROOT
שַׁמָּה
shammah yishom
GROWS FROM
שמם
š-m-m
To become desolate or to be appalled.
“stunned” in this verse is shammah yishom. The same root describes what happens to the land (shammah, desolation) and what happens to the passerby (yishom, astonishment). English separates ruin from shock, while Hebrew binds them: the visible devastation becomes an inward response.
ALSO GROWS
shemamah: Desolation or ruin.
שְׁמָמָה
It names the condition of the land and shares the root that also describes the passerby’s response.
shamem: To be desolate, devastated, or appalled.
שָׁמֵם
This form holds both the ruined place and the astonished witness within one root-family.
THE PATTERN
When devastation remains visible, it becomes a public sign that arrests those who pass by.
And all the nations will say, "Why has the LORD done this to this land? What means the burning of this great anger?"And this house, which was high, every one who passes by it shall be stunned and shall hiss, and they shall say, "Why has the LORD done so to this land and to this house?"And I will make this city a waste, and a hissing. Everyone who passes by there will be stunned and hiss because of all its blows.THE THREAD
And I will make this city a waste, and a hissing. Everyone who passes by there will be stunned and hiss because of all its blows.Jeremiah repeats the same chain: a place becomes desolate, then the passerby is appalled. The shared שמם root binds the land’s ruin to the observer’s response.
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