What Does Jeremiah 24:9 Mean?
And I will give them for a shaking, for a breaking, to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and a proverb, for a whetting and a curse, in all the places where I push them.
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 will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.THE KEY
Exile here becomes a public identity: the people are driven across borders and made into a sharpened saying others repeat.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of judgment that sets a people among the kingdoms and exposes them as reproach, proverb, taunt, and curse. Displacement reaches beyond lost ground: it becomes a story others repeat, fixing shame onto those who endure it. The force is stark, their suffering is made public.
THE ROOT
וּנְתַתִּים
u-netattim
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
Give, set, place.
“give” in this verse is u-netattim. Beneath “deliver” is the concrete act of giving or setting. Here the people are placed among the kingdoms, exposed to a condition of public disgrace.
ALSO GROWS
natan: Give, set, place.
נָתַן
This is the verb’s root form: the people are assigned to the situation named in the verse.
mattanah: Gift, present; something given.
מַתָּנָה
This noun shares the root’s plain sense of giving; here what is given over is a people facing disgrace.
אֲדִיחֵם
ʾadîḥēm
GROWS FROM
נדח
n-d-ḥ
Thrust away, drive out.
“push” in this verse is ʾadîḥēm. This root carries the force of being pushed away from one’s place, not simply traveling elsewhere. Deuteronomy uses the same root for the person driven to the farthest edge, then speaks of gathering that person.
ALSO GROWS
niddāḥ: One driven out; an outcast.
נִדָּח
The root makes displacement a condition borne by the person, not only movement across geography.
hiddiaḥ: Drive away, thrust aside.
הִדִּיחַ
This causative form keeps the force of an outward push visible in the verse’s final image.
לִשְׁנִינָה
lishənīnāh
GROWS FROM
שנן
sh-n-n
Sharpen, whet.
“whetting” in this verse is lishənīnāh. The taunt comes from a root of sharpening, so disgrace takes the form of words with an edge. The same root can describe sharpening instruction: speech can impress sharply, or wound sharply.
ALSO GROWS
shānan: Sharpen, whet.
שָׁנַן
This is the root’s concrete image, giving the taunt its sense of words sharpened to cut.
veshinnantām: Teach them diligently; impress them sharply.
וְשִׁנַּנְתָּם
Deuteronomy 6:7 uses this form for teaching; here the same sharpness appears in speech that turns a people into a taunt.
THE PATTERN
When a people are driven from their place, their displacement can become a public sign that others see and speak about across nations.
And you shall become a desolation, a proverb, and a taunt, among all the nations to which the LORD shall drive you.You make us a proverb among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.They will fall by the mouth of the sword, and be led away captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the seasons of the nations are filled.THE THREAD
If any of yours are driven away to the outermost edge of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.“Driven out” uses the same Hebrew root as Jeremiah’s “drive them,” making this a direct word-level link. Deuteronomy places gathering beside that banishment, even from the farthest edge, widening the thread without erasing the severity of Jeremiah’s sentence.
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