What Does Jeremiah 46:5 Mean?
Why have I seen them shattered and turned back? Their mighty ones are crushed, and they flee in haste without turning their faces. Terror is on every side, declares the LORD.
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
Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: for fear was round about, saith the LORD.THE KEY
The Hebrew doubles the root of flight, “flight, they fled”, so fear does not merely unsettle these warriors; it takes over their direction.
THE MEANING
You can be capable and still find fear surrounding you; strength does not guarantee that you can hold your ground. The mighty are struck, turn back, and flee without looking back. Fear is not at the edge of the scene; it encircles it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that strength or status makes a person immune to fear is undone here: those called mighty are still struck and flee when terror surrounds them.
THE ROOT
מָנוֹס נָסוּ
mānôs nāsû
GROWS FROM
נוּס
nûs
To flee or escape.
English’s “fled apace” makes speed audible, while the Hebrew repeats the root itself, naming flight and then the act of fleeing. Even the mighty are caught in that movement, with no backward glance.
ALSO GROWS
mānôs: Flight; escape.
מָנוֹס
This noun names the flight that the verb נָסוּ (nāsû) then enacts.
nāsû: They fled.
נָסוּ
The verb repeats the noun’s root, making flight the action that defines the line.
גִּבּוֹרֵיהֶם
gibbōrêhem
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
To be strong or prevail.
“mighty ones” in this verse is gibbōrêhem. Their title comes from גבר, the seed of strength and prevailing. The sentence places that name beside being struck and fleeing, showing that a reputation for strength cannot hold a person upright when terror surrounds them.
ALSO GROWS
gibbôr: Mighty one; warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
This is the singular form behind the verse’s “mighty ones,” naming people associated with strength.
gābar: To be strong; to prevail.
גָּבַר
The verb exposes the force hidden in their title, which the verse immediately places under pressure.
geber: Man; strong man.
גֶּבֶר
This related form connects the root’s idea of strength to a person who embodies it.
THE PATTERN
When fear encloses a person, apparent strength can give way to flight.
The LORD shall give you struck down before your enemies. You shall go out on one road against them, and flee before them on seven roads, and you shall be a trembling to all the kingdoms of the earth.A thousand will flee at the roar of one, at the roar of five you will flee, until you are left like a pole on the head of the mountain, and like a banner on the hill.And they all let go of him and fled.THE THREAD
For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Tell, they say, and we will tell it. All the men of my wholeness watched for my stumbling, saying, Perhaps he will be coaxed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our vengeance on him.Both verses use מָגוֹר מִסָּבִיב (māgôr missāvîv, terror on every side). Here it encloses the fleeing fighters; in Jeremiah 20:10 it encloses the speaker amid slander and threatened betrayal, making fear a surrounding condition in both scenes.
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