What Does Jeremiah 4:6 Mean?
Lift the banner toward Zion; run, and do not stand. For I bring harm from the north, and a great breaking.
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
Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.THE KEY
The raised standard points toward Zion as the north brings a great breaking near.
THE MEANING
Zion is the direction marked for you: raise the signal, seek refuge, and do not stay in place. The speaker announces that disaster is coming from the north, not as a small setback but as a great shattering. The warning makes movement urgent while naming the threat plainly.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that staying put is neutral when a clear warning has already been given.
THE ROOT
נֵס
nēs
GROWS FROM
נסס
To lift up or make conspicuous as a signal.
The standard is a raised signal, not merely a symbol: it directs attention toward a destination. The Hebrew word also means an ensign or sign, joining the physical banner with the message it makes visible.
ALSO GROWS
nāsas: To raise or make conspicuous as a signal.
נָסַס
The verb gives the standard its action: it is lifted so its direction can be seen.
nissî: My banner, as in the name Jehovah-nissi.
נִסִּי
This form shows how a banner can name the one whose signal gathers and guides people.
שֶׁבֶר
shever
GROWS FROM
שבר
To break, shatter, or fracture.
The word translated destruction is literally a breaking or fracture. Elsewhere this root names breakers of the sea, giving the word a sense of force arriving in waves; here the verse calls that breaking great.
ALSO GROWS
shāvar: To break or shatter.
שָׁבַר
The verb makes the noun concrete: the announced destruction is a breaking apart.
mishbār: A breaker or surf, the breaking of waves.
מִשְׁבָּר
This branch shows how the same root can describe a force that arrives by breaking.
צָפוֹן
ṣāfôn
GROWS FROM
צפן
To hide, conceal, or store away.
The Hebrew word for north shares its root with hiding and storing away, adding a concealed register to the direction named. The coming threat is marked by where it comes from and by a word-root that carries the sense of what is hidden.
ALSO GROWS
ṣāphan: To hide or store away.
צָפַן
This verb carries the hiddenness that also echoes in the word for north.
ṣāfûn: Hidden or laid away.
צָפוּן
This form makes the concealed quality of the root explicit beside the verse’s named direction.
THE PATTERN
A raised signal makes the direction of movement visible when danger or change calls for a response.
And Moses built an altar and called its name Jehovahnissi, the LORD my lifted banner.And he will lift a banner to the nations from far away, and whistle to them from the end of the earth. Behold, they shall come swiftly, at a run.Then let those in Judea flee to the mountains.THE THREAD
And he will lift a banner to the nations from far away, and whistle to them from the end of the earth. Behold, they shall come swiftly, at a run.The Hebrew noun נֵס (nēs), meaning banner or signal, is the same word translated standard here. Isaiah shows that this raised sign can summon movement from far away, so Jeremiah’s signal toward Zion marks a direction for urgent refuge.
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