What Does Jeremiah 41:3 Mean?
Ishmael also struck all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, and the men of war.
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
Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with him, even with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans that were found there, and the men of war.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb beneath “slew” means “struck,” so this verse makes one act of violence legible through the distinct groups it reaches.
THE MEANING
The verse keeps the killing from becoming a blur: it names the Jews with Gedaliah, the Chaldeans found at Mizpah, and the men of war as those reached by the violence. Ishmael’s name carries “God hears,” and Gedaliah’s carries “YHWH has made great”; those meanings sit beside the killing without softening it. The collision between these names and these bodies remains in view.
THE ROOT
הִכָּה
hikkāh
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
To strike or smite.
“struck” in this verse is hikkāh. The verb here comes from the language of striking. Its noun מַכָּה (makkāh) can name a blow or plague, so the word translated “slew” remains connected to the strike and wound beneath the act.
ALSO GROWS
hikkāh: He struck; he smote.
הִכָּה
This is the Hebrew verb rendered “slew” here, retaining the image of striking.
makkāh: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
The noun carries the same root into the blow or affliction itself, a link the English “slew” can conceal.
יִשְׁמָעֵאל
Yishma'el
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear or listen.
Ishmael means “God hears,” from שָׁמַע (shāmaʿ), “hear,” joined with אֵל (El), “God.” Here that name stands beside the killing, creating an echo between hearing and the people the verse says are struck without explaining the violence away.
ALSO GROWS
shāmaʿ: To hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
This is the hearing-root inside Ishmael’s name, whose meaning remains present in the verse.
shemuʿah: A report or tidings.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root can name what is heard and carried as news, adding an echo of testimony to the name.
גְּדַלְיָהוּ
Gedalyahu
GROWS FROM
גדל
g-d-l
To grow, become great, or magnify.
Gedaliah means “YHWH has made great.” The root of growth and greatness is carried by the name of one among those caught in the killing, a name-nature the English form does not expose.
ALSO GROWS
gādal: To grow or become great.
גָּדַל
This verb supplies the root carried in Gedaliah’s name.
gādōl: Great or large.
גָּדוֹל
This adjective shows the root’s sense of greatness within the name.
THE PATTERN
Scripture keeps violence concrete by naming who is struck and the people or place its reach includes.
And Cain said to Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.Then Herod, when he perceived that he had been mocked by the wise men, burned with rage, and sent forth and killed all the children who were in Bethlehem and in all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the time he had carefully learned from the wise men.THE THREAD
And the messenger of the LORD said to her, Behold, you are with child, and you will bear a son, and you will call his name Ishmael, God-hears; for the LORD has heard and responded to your bending low.Genesis links Ishmael’s name to the root שמע, “hear”: “the LORD hath heard thy affliction.” In Jeremiah, that same name stands beside a killing, making the name’s meaning echo through the violence without turning it into an explanation.
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