What Does Jeremiah 21:2 Mean?
Seek out the LORD for us, I beg you; for Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, fights against us. Perhaps the LORD will do with us according to all his wonders, that he may lift away from us.
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
Enquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.THE KEY
The request asks for a wonder with a concrete outcome: the force making war must withdraw.
THE MEANING
The reader’s danger is not minimized: war presses in, and the hoped-for outcome is that the attacker leave. The plea reaches beyond the visible force and asks the LORD to act according to his wondrous works. The intervention remains a request, not a settled outcome.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
An advancing threat does not, by itself, settle what happens next; the verse leaves room for an intervention powerful enough to make it withdraw.
THE ROOT
דְּרָשׁ
derash
GROWS FROM
דרש
d-r-sh
To seek, inquire, or resort to someone.
“Seek out” in this verse is derash. The word translated “enquire” carries the sense of seeking the LORD, not simply asking for information. Its root family links inquiry with the act of turning toward the one who may answer the crisis.
ALSO GROWS
midrash: Inquiry or exposition.
מִדְרָשׁ
The shared root makes the request part of an active search for what the LORD will do.
doresh: One who seeks or inquires.
דֹּרֵשׁ
This form names the seeker; here the appeal seeks the LORD’s response while war presses in.
נִפְלְאֹתָיו
nif’lotav
GROWS FROM
פלא
p-l-ʾ
To be extraordinary or marvelous.
“wonders” in this verse is nif’lotav. The request names more than ordinary help: it asks the LORD to act according to his extraordinary works, with a specific result in view, the attacker’s withdrawal. The wonder is expressed through what happens, not merely through spectacle.
ALSO GROWS
pele: A wonder or marvel.
פֶּלֶא
This noun shares the root behind the works being invoked in the plea.
nifla: Wondrous or extraordinary.
נִפְלָא
This form shows the quality the request attributes to the LORD’s works: they exceed the ordinary.
THE PATTERN
When danger presses in, the text turns toward the LORD with a plea for action that can change the course of events.
O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no strength against this great multitude that comes against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.I seek the LORD, and he answers me, and snatches me out of every place of dread.Peter was therefore kept in prison, but prayer was stretched out by the assembly toward God for him.THE THREAD
I seek the LORD, and he answers me, and snatches me out of every place of dread.“Sought” comes from the same Hebrew root, דרש (d-r-sh), as “enquire” in Jeremiah. Here that seeking is followed by hearing and deliverance, echoing the hoped-for result: that the threat will depart.
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