What Does Jeremiah 38:3 Mean?
Thus says the LORD, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and it shall seize it.
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
Thus saith the LORD, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it.THE KEY
The doubled Hebrew form of “given” makes the handover emphatic before the verse names the army’s capture.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks plainly about power closing around a people: the city is handed into Babylon’s army’s grasp, and that army captures it. The Hebrew makes the transfer emphatic, then names the taking without softening it.
THE ROOT
נָתֹן תִּנָּתֵן
nātōn tinnāṯēn
GROWS FROM
נתן
to give, set, or place
“given into the hand” in this verse is nātōn tinnāṯēn. The verb natan is repeated in an emphatic Hebrew construction, rendered “shall surely be given.” The city is pictured as placed into another power’s hand, making the transfer itself the verse’s first forceful claim.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give, set, or place
נָתַן
The same root holds giving and placing together; here what is placed into another’s hand is a city.
mattan: gift, present
מַתָּן
This branch shows that natan names a transfer; in this verse, what passes from hand to hand is not a gift but the city.
וּלְכָדָהּ
ûləḵāḏāh
GROWS FROM
לכד
to catch, seize, or capture
“seize it” in this verse is ûləḵāḏāh. The English “take” can sound like simple possession, while lakad names catching or capturing. After the emphatic handover, this verb states what the army does to the city.
ALSO GROWS
lokhed: one who catches or captures
לֹכֵד
This form names the one doing the catching, making the force behind the city’s capture explicit.
nilkad: caught or captured
נִלְכַּד
This form names the state of being caught, illuminating the city’s fate under the army’s power.
THE PATTERN
A declared handover names both a transfer of custody and the force that takes hold.
Rise up, pull up, and cross over the torrent-bed of Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land; begin to take hold of it, and stir him up in battle.And it came to pass that same night, the LORD said to him, Rise, go down to the camp, for I have given it into your hand.This one, handed over by the marked-out counsel and foreknowing of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of the unbounded, and you killed him.THE THREAD
And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with part of the vessels of the house of God. He carried them into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.Daniel uses the same Hebrew transfer pattern: natan, “give or place,” and “into his hand.” Jeremiah applies that grammar to the city itself, making the hand an image of custody and power.
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