What Does Jeremiah 22:8 Mean?
And many nations shall cross by this city, and each man shall say to his neighbor, Why has the LORD done this to this great city?
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 many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?THE KEY
A city can be great enough to astonish the nations and still become a public question about what brought it low.
THE MEANING
The city stands exposed before passersby as a place under judgment, and its greatness sharpens the contrast between its scale and its fate. Their question moves from what they see to the act behind it: what has the LORD done, and why? Its public condition calls for a cause deeper than appearances alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that greatness itself guarantees protection is exposed: a city can be called great and still face devastating judgment.
THE ROOT
עָשָׂה
asah
GROWS FROM
עשה
to do, make, or act
English “done” can land as a finished result; עשה also carries the sense of making and acting. The question points through the city’s visible condition toward an act whose cause the next verse discloses.
ALSO GROWS
ma'aseh: work, deed
מַעֲשֶׂה
The same seed names the act itself; the city’s fate is spoken of as something done, not a nameless turn of fortune.
oseh: one who does or makes
עֹשֶׂה
This form names an agent who acts, matching the verse’s direct question about what the LORD has done.
גְּדוֹלָה
gedolah
GROWS FROM
גדל
to grow, become great, or increase
The city’s title “great” belongs to a root of growing or becoming great, so greatness carries the image of attained scale, not guaranteed permanence. The question keeps that greatness in view while the city faces an outcome its size cannot explain.
ALSO GROWS
gadal: to grow, become great
גָּדַל
The city’s greatness shares its seed with growth, placing its scale in the question without making that scale an answer.
gedullah: greatness, majesty
גְּדֻלָּה
The same root names greatness itself, underscoring the contrast between the city’s stature and the fate that provokes the nations’ question.
THE PATTERN
A city’s public collapse turns its visible condition into a question about the divine act and the breach behind it.
And all the nations will say, "Why has the LORD done this to this land? What means the burning of this great anger?"Standing far off for the fear of her scourging, saying, Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.THE THREAD
Then they will say, Because they have let go of the covenant of the LORD their God, and bowed down to other gods, and served them.The question in this verse receives its answer immediately: the LORD’s covenant is forsaken, and other gods are served. The city’s public devastation exposes a prior departure in what it serves.
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