What Does Jeremiah 47:2 Mean?
Thus says the LORD. Look, waters rise out of the north and become a sweeping torrent. They sweep over the land and its fullness, the city and those who dwell in it. Then humankind cries out, and all who settle the land howl.
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
Thus saith the LORD; Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.THE KEY
The Hebrew root שׁטף (sh-t-f, sweep over or overflow) names both the flood and its sweeping action: the flood is already the force overtaking the land.
THE MEANING
The threat does not remain at the horizon: it rises, spreads across the land, and reaches the city and everyone within it. When a force overtakes the ground of ordinary life, this verse names the devastation at its full scale and lets the cry of those inside it be heard.
THE ROOT
שׁוֹטֵף
shotef
GROWS FROM
שטף
sh-t-f
sweep over, rush over, overflow
“sweeping torrent” in this verse is shotef. The verse uses שׁוֹטֵף (shotef, sweeping or overflowing) for the flood, then repeats the root in וְיִשְׁטְפוּ (veyishtəfu, they shall sweep over). The flood and its movement are not separate images in Hebrew; they share one root.
ALSO GROWS
shetef: flood, torrent
שֶׁטֶף
This noun names the rushing force as a flood, echoing the verse’s image of waters overtaking the land.
shataf: to sweep over, overflow, wash away
שָׁטַף
This verb is the root’s action in the verse: the waters do not merely gather; they sweep across what lies in their path.
צָפוֹן
tsafon
GROWS FROM
צפן
ts-p-n
hide, conceal, store away
The Hebrew word for north, צָפוֹן (tsafon, north), is linked to צפן (tsaphan, to hide or store away). The source is named with a word associated with what is hidden, then the waters rise into view and spread across the inhabited land.
ALSO GROWS
tsaphan: to hide, conceal, store away
צָפַן
This verb gives the word for north its association with something concealed or held out of sight.
tsafun: hidden, concealed
צָפוּן
This related form makes the movement in the verse vivid: what is hidden becomes an overwhelming presence.
עֹלִים
ʿolim
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿ-l-h
go up, ascend, rise
עֹלִים (ʿolim, rising or going up) comes from עלה (ʿalah, to ascend). The waters first rise vertically, then the repeated flood-root carries that upward movement outward across the land.
ALSO GROWS
aliyah: ascent, going up
עֲלִיָּה
This noun preserves the root’s basic upward movement, the first motion of the waters here.
olah: burnt offering, that which goes up
עֹלָה
This word also carries the sense of rising, showing how the root holds upward movement across different forms.
THE PATTERN
Flood language portrays a force that crosses its bounds and threatens to carry away everything in its path.
Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his weight. He comes up over all his channels, and goes over all his banks.I sink in the mire of waters, where there is no footing. I come into the depths of waters, and the flood sweeps over me.And the serpent throws from his mouth water like a river after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away by the river.THE THREAD
I sink in the mire of waters, where there is no footing. I come into the depths of waters, and the flood sweeps over me.Jeremiah uses שׁטף (sh-t-f, to sweep over or overflow) for both the flood and its motion; the same root appears in this verse’s image of floods overflowing the speaker. The shared root joins a land-wide inundation to the first-person experience of being swept over.
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