What Does Jeremiah 21:5 Mean?
And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a gripping arm, in flaring anger, in burning heat, and in great wrath.
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
And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.THE KEY
The outstretched arm that brings people out elsewhere is aimed against “you” here.
THE MEANING
You encounter force that is not withdrawn: the hand reaches out, the arm is strong, and the verse names anger as heat, fury, and great wrath. Here, that force is aimed against you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that an outstretched divine hand always means rescue: here it is directed against you.
THE ROOT
נִלְחַמְתִּי
nilḥamti
GROWS FROM
לחם
l-ḥ-m
to fight or wage war
“fight” in this verse is nilḥamti. The root makes the action explicit: this is active opposition. Its related noun for battle shows the combat built into the verse’s wording.
ALSO GROWS
laḥam: Fight or wage war.
לָחַם
This verb shares the root and names the active force directed against “you.”
milḥamah: Battle or warfare.
מִלְחָמָה
The related noun makes clear that “fight” belongs to the language of combat, not merely distance or withdrawal.
נְטוּיָה
netuyah
GROWS FROM
נטה
natah
to stretch out, extend, or turn aside
“outstretched hand” in this verse is netuyah. This word carries both extension and direction: the hand reaches out toward someone. In this verse it is extended against you, while the same root appears in deliverance language elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
natah: Stretch out, extend, or incline/turn.
נָטָה
The verb reveals that the hand’s extension is an action with a direction.
matteh: A staff or rod; also a tribe.
מַטֶּה
The related staff is an extended rod, showing how the root’s sense of reaching or extending branches into a concrete object.
חֵמָה
ḥemah
GROWS FROM
חמה
ḥ-m-h
to be hot; heat or burning anger
“burning heat” in this verse is ḥemah. The word rendered “fury” carries the sense of heat, so anger here is not an abstract mood. It is named alongside anger and great wrath as part of the force aimed at you.
ALSO GROWS
ḥam: Hot or warm.
חַם
This adjective preserves the root’s basic sense of heat beneath the word for fury.
ḥamah: To burn with anger or be hot.
חָמָה
The verb shows the heat at the root of the fury named in the verse.
THE PATTERN
The image of God’s extended hand carries its direction in context: it brings people out in one verse and strikes them in another.
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.Therefore the burning of the LORD's anger flares against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them, and has struck them. The hills quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this, the burning of his anger has not turned back, but his hand is still stretched out.It is an awe-filled thing to fall into the hands of the living God.THE THREAD
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.Both verses use the extended arm as God’s active power, and both draw on the root נטה (natah, “to stretch out”). Exodus directs that power to bring people out of bondage; Jeremiah directs it against “you.”
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