What Does Jeremiah 18:7 Mean?
In a blink I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to uproot, and to tear down, and to make it perish.
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
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;THE KEY
The spoken threat of destruction is not itself an irreversible ending; the following verse shows the outcome can still turn.
THE MEANING
The verse holds a nation and its governing order beneath a word that can uproot, pull down, and bring them to ruin. The threat is real, yet it does not seal the future: the next verse makes a turn away from evil consequential to the announced outcome.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a pronouncement of ruin makes the future irreversible; the following verse leaves room for the nation to turn and for the announced harm to be withdrawn.
THE ROOT
לְהַאֲבִידוֹ
ləhaʾăbîdô
GROWS FROM
אבד
Perish, be lost, lose the way; in this causative form, cause to perish.
“to make it perish” in this verse is ləhaʾăbîdô. The verb translated “destroy” is the causative form of אָבַד (ʾābad), whose basic sense is to perish or be lost. The root holds both sides together: something is lost, and an agent causes that loss.
ALSO GROWS
ʾābad: Perish, be lost.
אָבַד
This is the root’s basic sense, showing the state of ruin that the verse’s causative verb brings about.
ʾăbēdāh: A lost thing; something missing.
אֲבֵדָה
This noun keeps the sense of loss inside the same root as the act translated “destroy.”
ʾăbaddôn: Destruction, ruin.
אֲבַדּוֹן
This branch names the ruin that the verse’s verb says can be caused.
אֲדַבֵּר
ʾădabbēr
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak, utter; the related noun also means word or matter.
“speak” in this verse is ʾădabbēr. The sequence of uprooting and ruin begins with speech. The root connects utterance with דָּבָר (dābār), a word or matter, placing the announced word at the threshold of what may happen.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: Spoke, uttered.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root of “I shall speak,” making the announced word central to the verse’s action.
dābār: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
This noun shows how the same root can name both speech and the matter spoken of.
מַמְלָכָה
mamlāḵāh
GROWS FROM
מלך
Rule, reign, kingship.
“kingdom” in this verse is mamlāḵāh. מַמְלָכָה (mamlāḵāh) grows from the root מלך, which also names a king and the act of reigning. What can be pulled down is therefore not only territory, but the governance holding it together.
ALSO GROWS
meleḵ: King.
מֶלֶךְ
The ruler is one branch of the same root that forms “kingdom.”
mālaḵ: Reign, rule as king.
מָלַךְ
This verb brings out the active rule contained within the idea of a kingdom.
malkût: Kingship, reign, dominion.
מַלְכוּת
This related noun makes the governing order in “kingdom” especially clear.
THE PATTERN
A spoken judgment remains responsive to a turn away from evil.
If that nation, against which I have spoken, turns from its harm, I will relent of the harm I had planned to do to them.And God saw their deeds, because they turned back from their harmful way; and God relented from the harm he had spoken to do to them, and he did not do it.No, I say to you. But unless you turn, you will all likewise perish.THE THREAD
If that nation, against which I have spoken, turns from its harm, I will relent of the harm I had planned to do to them.This verse answers the threat in verse 7: the pronouncement of uprooting is followed by a condition, and a turn changes what follows. The warning opens a changed outcome instead of sealing the future.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us