What Does Jeremiah 25:20 Mean?
And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,
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 all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,THE KEY
The roll call takes in the mixed, the strong-named, and what remains, placing them all within the same reckoning.
THE MEANING
The announced reckoning names a mixed population, rulers, territories, cities, and even what remains of Ashdod. It speaks now with precise force: neither mixed identity, strength, nor reduced circumstance makes a people disappear from the scope being named.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this list dissolves is that a mixed people, a strong city, or a city’s survivors can fall outside the reach of the reckoning.
THE ROOT
הָעֶרֶב
hāʿēreb
GROWS FROM
עָרַב
to mix, mingle, or interweave
“mingled people” in this verse is hāʿēreb. English makes “mingled” sound like a passing description; the Hebrew names a mixed company as a people in its own right. The same root describes people mingling with one another, keeping that shared identity audible beneath the translation.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēreb rav: mixed multitude, a mixed company
עֵרֶב רַב
Exodus uses the same root to name a varied company that goes up with Israel, showing that mixture does not make a people unnameable.
hitʿārəḇū: they mingled themselves, intermingled
הִתְעָרְבוּ
Ezra uses a verbal form of the same root for peoples mixing together, revealing the shared seed beneath the English forms.
שְׁאֵרִית
sheʾērît
GROWS FROM
שָׁאַר
to remain, be left over
A remnant is what remains after a people or place has been reduced. Here the list reaches Ashdod in its remainder, keeping what is left within the same reckoning.
ALSO GROWS
sheʾār: remainder, what is left
שְׁאָר
This noun carries the same root idea of what remains after loss or reduction.
yishāʾēr: will remain, will be left
יִשָּׁאֵר
This verb makes the root’s action explicit: the remnant is what continues to be left.
עַזָּה
ʿAzzāh
GROWS FROM
עָזַז
to be strong, mighty, or firm
Azzah, the Hebrew name for Gaza, echoes the word for strength. The city named as strong is still inside the roll call, with no strength implied to place it beyond the reckoning.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaz: strong, fierce
עַז
The adjective echoes the strength heard in the name Azzah.
ʿōz: strength, might
עֹז
This noun makes the name’s strength-root visible as a quality, which the list places within the oracle’s reach.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes the reach of judgment concrete by naming populations, rulers, places, and social ranks rather than leaving “all” abstract.
For behold, I begin to bring evil on the city that is called by my nature, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword upon all who settle on the earth, says the LORD of hosts.For the outburst of the LORD is upon all nations, and his heat upon all their armies. He devotes them to destruction, and gives them to the slaughter.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
And a great mixture went up with them also, and flocks and herds, even very much livestock.The same עָרַב (ʿārab), “mix” or “mingle,” root names the mixed multitude going up out of Egypt. Here it names a mixed people within the oracle’s roll call, making that group’s inclusion unmistakable.
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