What Does Jeremiah 46:14 Mean?
Tell it in Egypt, and make it heard in Migdol, and make it heard in Noph and in Tahpanhes; say, Take your stand and make yourself ready, for the sword shall eat all around you.
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
Declare ye in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes: say ye, Stand fast, and prepare thee; for the sword shall devour round about thee.THE KEY
The warning is sent through מִצְרַיִם (Mitzrayim, Egypt), the two narrows, because the sword is already closing in around it.
THE MEANING
You are addressed from inside constriction, where the warning reaches every named place: stand fast, make ready, because the sword is consuming around you. The danger is already surrounding you; the verse lets the threat stay direct and present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The threat is not safely elsewhere or still distant: the sword is already devouring around you.
THE ROOT
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צָרַר
tsarar
To bind, press in, or constrain.
The name מִצְרַיִם (Mitzrayim, Egypt) is read through צַר (tsar, narrow) and its dual ending as the two narrows. The warning lands inside constriction itself: the threat surrounds the place named by that narrowing.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight, constricted.
צַר
This echo lets the name of the place carry the feel of pressure and confinement.
metsar: A narrow place or strait; distress.
מֵצַר
The warning is voiced from within the narrow place, where the threat is already all around.
הַשְׁמִיעוּ
hashmiu
GROWS FROM
שָׁמַע
shamaʿ
To hear, listen, or heed.
“make it heard” in this verse is hashmiu. The repeated command translated “publish” is literally to cause something to be heard. The warning is not merely posted; it is made audible across the named places, so the danger enters public hearing.
ALSO GROWS
shamaʿ: Hear, listen, heed.
שָׁמַע
The announcement depends on people hearing the warning as it reaches them.
shemuʿah: Report, tidings, news.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root can name what is heard as a report, linking the public announcement to the news of danger.
הָכֵן
haken
GROWS FROM
כּוּן
kun
To be firm, established, or set in place.
“make yourself ready” in this verse is haken. The call translated “prepare” carries the sense of setting something firmly in place. Beside “stand fast,” readiness becomes a taking of position while the danger surrounds you.
ALSO GROWS
hekin: Prepare, make ready.
הֵכִין
This is the preparation named in the verse: readiness formed in response to the surrounding threat.
makhon: A fixed place, foundation, or established dwelling.
מָכוֹן
The root’s sense of setting in place gives preparation the texture of a position made firm.
THE PATTERN
When danger approaches, warning makes it heard and readiness gives the hearer a place to stand.
If, when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blows the horn and warns the people;By trust Noah, warned of things not yet seen, moved with awe and built an ark for the deliverance of his house. Through it he judged against the world, and became an heir of the alignment that comes by trust.Therefore stay awake, and remember, that for three years I did not stop warning each one, night and day, with tears.THE THREAD
If, when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blows the horn and warns the people;The same Hebrew word חֶרֶב (cherev, sword) appears in Jeremiah’s warning and Ezekiel’s watchman scene. Jeremiah’s call to make the danger heard opens into Ezekiel’s trumpet: a threat at the perimeter is made public so people can respond.
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