What Does Jeremiah 25:19 Mean?
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;
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
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;THE KEY
Egypt is named as a whole constricting order, from Pharaoh’s throne to all its people.
THE MEANING
This line makes the whole order visible at once: its ruler, those who serve him, its chiefs, and all the people. The narrowing named by Egypt reaches across every rank, leaving no layer outside the account.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The false belief that Pharaoh alone is the whole story falls away: his servants, princes, and all his people belong in the same line.
THE ROOT
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צ־ר־ר
tsarar
To bind, press in, or make narrow.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim echoes tzar, narrowness, and its ending -ayim carries the sense of two narrows. Here the name reaches from Pharaoh through his court to the whole people, showing constriction across every level.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight; a strait.
צַר
This branch gives Egypt the image of a narrowed space, while the verse shows that the narrowing encompasses the entire order.
tsarah: Distress, trouble.
צָרָה
The same narrowness becomes lived distress, making Egypt a picture of constriction that extends beyond one person or rank.
עֲבָדָיו
ʿăvādāw
GROWS FROM
ע־ב־ד
ʿavad
To serve or work.
The servants are named through the root avad, to serve or work, placing service inside Pharaoh’s order. The list counts those who staff the court alongside its ruler and the whole people.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: Servant.
עֶבֶד
This is the noun behind “servants”; their service is part of the structure the verse names.
avodah: Service, work.
עֲבֹדָה
This branch makes the labor within an order visible alongside the authority that directs it.
THE PATTERN
A whole order becomes visible when the text names its ruler, its ranks, and its people together.
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of the bite, so with the giver of the bite to him.The king shall mourn, and the lifted one shall clothe himself in desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be startled. According to their ways I have done to them, and according to their judgment I will judge them, and they shall perceive that I am the LORD.And the kings of the earth, and the great ones, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every servant and every free one hide themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.THE THREAD
The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, declares, Look, I will visit upon the multitude of No, and the Great House, and Egypt, with her gods and her kings; even the Great House, and all who lean their full weight upon him.This verse names Pharaoh and Egypt alongside their gods, kings, and everyone who trusts in Pharaoh. The shared name Mitzrayim extends the present list outward: the order includes its people and ranks as well as the powers they trust.
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