What Does Jeremiah 25:30 Mean?
Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say to them, The LORD roars from on high, and gives his voice from his set-apart dwelling. He roars mightily over his habitation. He gives a shout, as those who tread the grapes, against all who settle on the earth.
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
Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.THE KEY
The voice from God’s holy dwelling is likened to the cry of grape-treaders, so divine speech arrives as a forceful judgment reaching the whole earth.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s voice rises from above and reaches every inhabitant, including the reader. The verse compares its sound to the shout of those crushing grapes, holding divine speech together with the force of pressure and judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This verse undoes the belief that God’s voice is always a quiet, inward comfort: here it is a roar whose reach encompasses the earth.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁאַג
yish’ag
GROWS FROM
שאג
sha’ag
To roar, especially as a lion roars.
English can make the repeated “roar” sound like emphasis alone, while Hebrew repeats the root in שָׁאֹג יִשְׁאַג (sha’og yish’ag, “roaring he will roar”). The same root describes a lion’s roar and a human’s anguished cry, joining the LORD’s utterance to a sound that signals danger and cannot be ignored.
ALSO GROWS
sha’agati: My roaring; my anguished cry.
שַׁאֲגָתִי
Psalm 22:1 uses this form for a human cry, showing that the root can name distress as well as a lion’s or the LORD’s roar.
yish’ag: He roars.
יִשְׁאַג
Amos 3:8 uses the same verb for a lion’s roar and immediately speaks of the LORD speaking, linking the sound with prophetic urgency.
דֹרְכִים
dorkhim
GROWS FROM
דרך
darak
To tread, step, or make one’s way by stepping.
“tread” in this verse is dorkhim. The shout is heard in the work of feet pressing grapes; its Hebrew verb comes from the same root that gives דֶּרֶךְ (derek, “way” or “path”). The image binds crushing pressure to the bodily act of making a track, keeping the verse’s judgment concrete rather than abstract.
ALSO GROWS
dorkhim: Those who tread or press.
דֹרְכִים
This is the form used for the grape-treaders, whose shout supplies the verse’s image of forceful, collective action.
derek: Way, path, or road.
דֶּרֶךְ
The shared root connects a path with the steps that press it into being; here, the repeated treading becomes part of the roar’s image.
THE PATTERN
A lion-like roar marks speech that breaks ordinary silence and sets a response in motion.
The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who will not prophesy?The LORD will also roar out of Zion, and give his voice from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth will quake, but the LORD will be a shelter to his people, and a stronghold to the sons of Israel.And he cried out with a loud voice, as a lion roars, and when he had cried out, the seven thunders spoke with their own voices.THE THREAD
The LORD will also roar out of Zion, and give his voice from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth will quake, but the LORD will be a shelter to his people, and a stronghold to the sons of Israel.Joel uses the same Hebrew root, שָׁאַג (sha’ag, “roar”), and pairs it with the LORD uttering his voice, as Jeremiah does. The shared roar shakes the world; Joel also holds its terror beside the LORD as hope and strength.
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