What Does Jeremiah 18:22 Mean?
Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring a troop upon them in a single stroke. For they have dug a pit to catch me, and have hidden snares for my feet.
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
Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.THE KEY
The verse turns concealed violence into a cry heard from the homes of those who set the traps.
THE MEANING
The verse names a threat laid in secret: a pit is dug to catch you, and snares are hidden where your feet will land. It voices a fierce plea for sudden force to reach those who arranged the ambush, until a cry is heard from their own houses.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It challenges the belief that concealed harm stays private and consequence-free: the verse asks for the cry to come from the homes of those who set the traps.
THE ROOT
טָמְנוּ
tamnu
GROWS FROM
טמן
ṭ-m-n
To hide, conceal, or bury.
The root beneath “hid” also yields a word for hidden treasure. The same act of concealment can store what is precious or bury what threatens; here, it hides snares where the speaker must walk.
ALSO GROWS
tamun: Hidden, buried.
טָמוּן
It keeps the root’s sense of something placed out of sight, like the concealed snares in the verse.
matmon: Hidden treasure.
מַטְמוֹן
It shows that the root of concealment can describe something valuable kept out of sight as well as a danger hidden from its target.
לְרַגְלָי
leraglay
GROWS FROM
רגל
r-g-l
Foot; going about on foot.
“feet” in this verse is leraglay. The same root also forms the word for a spy, one who goes about observing a place. English gives only the body part, while the Hebrew root links the hidden snares to movement through the place where the speaker walks.
ALSO GROWS
regel: Foot.
רֶגֶל
This is the body part directly threatened by the concealed snares.
meraggel: Spy, scout.
מְרַגֵּל
This related word carries the sense of moving through a place to observe, echoing the verse’s danger hidden along the speaker’s path.
זְעָקָה
ze'aqah
GROWS FROM
זעק
z-ʿ-q
To cry out urgently or call for help.
The phrase “let a cry be heard” uses a word from the root for an urgent outcry, not just a neutral sound. The verse imagines that distress made audible in the houses of those who set the ambush.
ALSO GROWS
za'aq: To cry out, call for help.
זָעַק
It is the verb form of the urgent cry named in the verse.
ze'aqah: Cry, outcry.
זְעָקָה
It names the audible distress the verse says will come from their houses.
THE PATTERN
A trap prepared in secret can become the means of the trap-setter’s own reversal.
For nothing they hide for me their net in a pit; for nothing they dig for my living soul.Whoever digs a pit falls into it; whoever rolls a stone, it turns back upon him.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
For nothing they hide for me their net in a pit; for nothing they dig for my living soul.Psalm 35:7 shares the Hebrew root טמן (tamnu, “they hid”) with Jeremiah 18:22. Both verses place concealed danger along the path of the person being targeted: a net in a pit in the Psalm, snares at the speaker’s feet in Jeremiah.
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