What Does Jeremiah 42:18 Mean?
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; as the burning of my anger and my heat have been poured out upon those who settled in Jerusalem, so my heat shall be poured out upon you when you enter Egypt. You shall become a sworn curse, a wasteland, a curse, and a taunt, and you shall see this place no more.
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 thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.THE KEY
The same fury poured over Jerusalem is declared to follow those who enter Egypt.
THE MEANING
This is a warning that Egypt cannot shield the one who enters it: the fury poured over Jerusalem is said to be poured over you there. Its promised result is public horror, curse, reproach, and never seeing this place again.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that crossing into Egypt guarantees escape from the fury declared here.
THE ROOT
נִתַּךְ
nittakh
GROWS FROM
נתך
To pour, flow, or melt.
“have been poured out” in this verse is nittakh. The Hebrew repeats this root for the fury poured over Jerusalem and the fury threatened against those entering Egypt. English preserves the repeated phrase poured forth, while the root adds the concrete sense of a force flowing from one place onto another.
ALSO GROWS
nātakh: To pour out, flow, or melt.
נָתַךְ
This is the root form behind both outpouring verbs in the verse.
nittakh: Was poured out.
נִתַּךְ
This form describes the fury poured over Jerusalem.
tinnātekh: Will be poured out.
תִּנָּתֵךְ
This form applies the same outpouring to those entering Egypt.
THE PATTERN
Prophetic judgment gives divine fury the concrete movement of something poured onto its named target.
Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD. Look, the burning of my anger and my heat shall be poured out upon this place, upon the human and upon the beast, upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the soil, and it shall burn, and shall not be put out.Now I will soon pour out my heat upon you, and I will run out the burning of my anger upon you. I will judge you according to your ways, and I will set upon you all your sickening things.And I hear a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven messengers, Go your ways, and pour out the bowls of the burning of God's anger upon the earth.THE THREAD
Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD. Look, the burning of my anger and my heat shall be poured out upon this place, upon the human and upon the beast, upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the soil, and it shall burn, and shall not be put out.Jeremiah 7:20 uses the same Hebrew root נתך (nātakh, to pour or flow) for anger and fury poured onto the place and its living things. The shared root makes the threat in 42:18 read as the same outpouring extending from one named location to another.
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