What Does Jeremiah 25:18 Mean?
Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and their kings, and their princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;
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
To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;THE KEY
A city whose name carries the echo of wholeness becomes a place of ruin that others witness, hiss at, and call cursed.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the reader now of a community laid bare: its city, towns, rulers, and public standing are handed over to ruin and scorn. The collapse becomes visible and audible through astonishment, hissing, and curse; the verse does not hide its violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a sacred city or powerful rulers are beyond devastation is undone: Jerusalem, Judah, its kings, and its princes all stand inside the ruin named here.
THE ROOT
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; the wholeness carried in shalom.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name Yerushalayim carries the wholeness heard in shalom. Here that name is placed among what is made desolate, so the verse holds the fracture inside the name itself.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
The city’s name carries this sound of wholeness even as the verse describes its ruin.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the contrast with the city’s devastation especially sharp.
שַׁמָּה
shammah
GROWS FROM
שמם
sh-m-m
To be desolate or appalled.
The Hebrew word rendered “astonishment” belongs to the same word family as desolation. The shock is bound to the ruined scene that produces it.
ALSO GROWS
shamem: To be desolate or appalled.
שָׁמֵם
The reaction of astonishment grows from the condition of desolation.
shemamah: Desolation, wasteland.
שְׁמָמָה
This branch shows the devastated state behind the onlooker’s shock.
לִשְׁרֵקָה
lishreqah
GROWS FROM
שרק
sh-r-q
To whistle or hiss.
“hissing” in this verse is lishreqah. The root names an audible reaction, not merely a condition. The ruin acquires an audience and becomes a sound people make as they pass it.
ALSO GROWS
sharaq: To whistle or hiss.
שָׁרַק
The verb makes the response to the devastation immediate and audible.
shriqah: A whistling or hissing.
שְׁרִיקָה
This noun names the public sound that the verse says will accompany the city’s ruin.
THE PATTERN
When a community’s ruin becomes public, devastation is seen, heard, and carried in the speech of others.
And you shall become a desolation, a proverb, and a taunt, among all the nations to which the LORD shall drive you.And this house, which was high, every one who passes by it shall be stunned and shall hiss, and they shall say, "Why has the LORD done so to this land and to this house?"And the kings of the earth, who sold themselves with her and feasted with her, shall weep and beat their breasts over her when they look upon the smoke of her burning.THE THREAD
And this house, which was high, every one who passes by it shall be stunned and shall hiss, and they shall say, "Why has the LORD done so to this land and to this house?"Jeremiah’s “hissing” comes from the same root as the passersby who “shall hiss” at the house in 1 Kings. In both verses, devastation becomes an audible public response to what people see.
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