What Does Jeremiah 25:29 Mean?
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.
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
For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb marks the city as bearing God’s name and summons a sword against the earth, so being named does not mean being exempt.
THE MEANING
Bearing God’s name marks belonging to God, but it does not shield a city, or anyone, from the reckoning that reaches the earth. The sword is summoned against all its inhabitants; the verse leaves no protected class outside that scope.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this verse dissolves is that being identified with God makes a person or place immune from judgment.
THE ROOT
קָרָא
qara
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call out, summon, or proclaim.
“called / call” in this verse is qara. The root קרא (qara, “call” or “summon”) appears first in “called by my name,” then again when the speaker calls for a sword. The city is marked by God’s name, but the verbal echo places it within the summons too: belonging does not make it untouchable.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To call, summon, or proclaim.
קָרָא
The verb describes both the city bearing the name and the sword being summoned.
miqra: A convocation or assembly; something called together.
מִקְרָא
It shows how a call can gather or summon; here, the summons is a sword against the earth’s inhabitants.
THE PATTERN
Divine naming marks belonging, but grants no exemption: judgment begins among those bearing the name and reaches the whole earth.
Only you have I known, out of all the families of the ground. Therefore I will visit upon you all your crookednesses.For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins first with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the good news of God?For there is no partiality with God.THE THREAD
But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and who shaped you, O Israel. Do not fear, for I have bought you back; I have called you by your name; you are mine.Both verses use קרא (qara, “call”) with a name: Jeremiah speaks of a city called by God’s name, while Isaiah says God calls a person by name. Isaiah shows the intimacy of being named; Jeremiah’s echo shows that belonging does not make the sword’s summons disappear.
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