What Does Jeremiah 25:22 Mean?
And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the coastlands beyond the sea,
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 kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,THE KEY
The sea can divide the map, but it cannot keep distant rulers outside the reach of this reckoning.
THE MEANING
This verse places even rulers across the sea within the reach of divine reckoning now. Distance and power do not create a hidden coast where anyone becomes unaccountable; what seems far away remains within the same field of account.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that power or distance makes someone unreachable dissolves here: even rulers beyond the sea remain within the reckoning.
THE ROOT
עֵבֶר
ʿever
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿ-b-r
to cross or pass over
The word translated “beyond” carries the sense of crossing over: the sea is a boundary crossed in the verse’s map, not an edge beyond its scope. English makes the location sound static; the Hebrew root keeps the idea of passage across a dividing line.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: to pass over, cross
עָבַר
The shared root gives “beyond the sea” the sense of being across a threshold, extending the list past the near shore.
maʿavar: passage, crossing
מַעֲבָר
This branch makes the boundary-crossing explicit: the sea separates places, yet the verse’s reckoning reaches across it.
מַלְכֵי
malkhei
GROWS FROM
מלך
m-l-k
to reign, exercise kingship
“kings” in this verse is malkhei. The list names the people who hold rule, not only the coastlands themselves. The same root gives “king” and “kingdom,” so the reach described here includes both rulers and the structures of power they embody.
ALSO GROWS
melekh: king
מֶלֶךְ
This is the singular form behind the rulers named in the verse.
malkhut: kingship, kingdom
מַלְכוּת
The branch widens the image from individual kings to the realm of rule they represent.
THE PATTERN
No sea boundary or rank places a ruler outside the divine horizon.
And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the earth, which are upon the face of the ground. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.The kings of Tarshish and the coastlands return a tribute, and the kings of Sheba and Seba draw near with gifts.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 all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the earth, which are upon the face of the ground. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.The same root מלך (m-l-k, to reign) appears in “kings” and “kingdoms.” The next verse opens the horizon of this one: the named coastlands belong to a reckoning that spans the whole earth.
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