What Does Jeremiah 47:1 Mean?
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before the Great House struck Gaza.
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
The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.THE KEY
The word is described as already being with Jeremiah before the blow, so the message occupies the space before impact.
THE MEANING
The verse places you at the threshold: the word has come to Jeremiah while Pharaoh’s strike against Gaza is still ahead. Here, the blow is not the first thing in the scene; the coming force has already been named.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The blow is the first thing to reach me; no word can precede it.
THE ROOT
הָיָה
hāyâ
GROWS FROM
היה
To be, become, or happen.
“came” in this verse is hāyâ. The Hebrew phrase literally describes the word as something that “was” to Jeremiah, using a verb that can also mean “happen.” The word is presented as an occurrence before the strike, not merely as a report after it.
ALSO GROWS
wayhî: And it happened; and it came to pass.
וַיְהִי
This common narrative form from the same root makes an event’s happening explicit, echoing how the word itself occurs before the blow.
yihyeh: He, she, or it will be; will happen.
יִהְיֶה
This future form holds together being and what is yet to happen, fitting a word that comes before the event it announces.
דְּבַר
dĕvar
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; a word or matter spoken of.
The Hebrew word for “word” belongs to a root that also names speaking, and the noun can refer to a matter or thing as well as an utterance. The message is not only language about the coming blow; it is a spoken matter already present in the scene.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The verbal branch shows the utterance within the noun: the word that comes to Jeremiah is speech, not an abstract label.
devarim: Words; matters or things.
דְּבָרִים
This plural form carries the root’s range from spoken words to matters, widening what “the word” can hold here.
יַכֶּה
yakkēh
GROWS FROM
נכה
To strike or smite.
“struck” in this verse is yakkēh. The strike is expressed with a concrete blow-word. Set beside the word that comes first, the verse holds speech and impact in a sharp sequence without making the violence less real.
ALSO GROWS
makkâ: A blow, strike, or plague.
מַכָּה
This noun from the same root gives the physical force of the verb a name.
nākâ: To strike or smite.
נָכָה
The base verb exposes the bodily action carried by “smote”: Pharaoh’s action is a blow against Gaza.
THE PATTERN
A word can arrive before an event, making what is coming legible before it unfolds.
For the Lord GOD does nothing, unless he uncovers his secret to his servants the prophets.Look, the former things have come, and I declare new things. Before they sprout, I make you hear them.Now I tell you, before it comes to be, so that when it has come to be, you may lean your weight on this, that I AM.THE THREAD
For the Lord GOD does nothing, unless he uncovers his secret to his servants the prophets.Jeremiah places the word before Pharaoh’s blow; Amos describes revelation before action. The connection makes the sequence visible while leaving the announced violence intact.
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