What Does Jeremiah 2:16 Mean?
Also the children of Noph and Tahpanhes have grazed upon the crown of your 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
Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head.THE KEY
The constricting power you turn toward can become the force that breaks your crown.
THE MEANING
The wound reaches the crown of your head: harm can come from the very power you have turned toward. The verse names the blow plainly, and its word for “broken” also belongs to the Hebrew family that names evil and harm.
THE ROOT
יִרְעוּךְ
yirʿûk
GROWS FROM
רעע
raʿa
To do harm, to be evil or bad.
“grazed upon” in this verse is yirʿûk. The verb rendered “broken” comes from a root that also names evil and harm. Jeremiah uses this same word family in the next verse for “wickedness” and “evil,” joining the wound to a larger pattern of destruction.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Evil, bad.
רַע
This branch shows that the root’s harm can be named as evil, not just as damage without meaning.
raʿah: Wickedness, evil, calamity.
רָעָה
Jeremiah 2:19 uses this word family for “thy wickedness” and “an evil thing,” echoing the harm named here.
THE PATTERN
The power leaned on for protection can become the instrument that wounds.
Therefore the stronghold of the Great House will be your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt will bow your heads.When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb; yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.When they grasped you by the palm, you broke, and split every shoulder. And when they leaned upon you, you broke, and you made all their loins stand.THE THREAD
Your own evil shall straighten you, and your own turnings away shall rebuke you. Perceive therefore, and see that it is evil and bitter, that you have let go of the LORD your God, and that my dread is not in you, says the Lord LORD of hosts.The Hebrew word family רעע (raʿa, to do harm or be evil) links “broken” here with “wickedness” and “evil” in the next verse. The two verses show the wound and name the destructive pattern bound up with it.
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