What Does Jeremiah 47:6 Mean?
O sword of the LORD, how long until you are still? Gather yourself into your sheath. Lie down, and be silent.
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
O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.THE KEY
The sword is not treated as destiny: even the LORD’s sword is told to return to its sheath and become still.
THE MEANING
The sword of the LORD is asked how long it will keep moving, then ordered back into its sheath. The repeated commands to rest and fall silent meet the reader in a world where violence feels active and its ending uncertain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that violence bearing God’s name must continue without limit: even this sword is asked how long and commanded to return to its sheath.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׁקֹטִי
tishqoti
GROWS FROM
שקט
sh-q-t
Be quiet, rest, remain undisturbed.
“still” in this verse is tishqoti. The sword is asked to stop disturbing the world around it. The root holds quiet as a real state of rest, not simply a pause before the next blow.
ALSO GROWS
sheqet: Quietness, stillness.
שֶׁקֶט
This noun makes the quiet the sword is asked to enter feel like a condition that can hold.
shoqet: Quiet, undisturbed.
שׁוֹקֵט
This form describes the state the sword is commanded to reach.
הֵאָסְפִי
he’asfi
GROWS FROM
אסף
ʾ-s-p
Gather, collect, bring together or inward.
“gather yourself” in this verse is he’asfi. The sword is told to gather back into its sheath; its motion turns inward, away from harm. The same root appears in the language of ingathering, giving this command the shape of drawing something in rather than sending it outward.
ALSO GROWS
asif: Ingathering, harvest season.
אָסִיף
The image of gathering links the sword’s return to a movement from outward reach to being drawn in.
asifah: Gathering, assembly.
אֲסִיפָה
This branch carries the root’s sense of collecting what has been dispersed.
דֹּמִּי
dommi
GROWS FROM
דמם
d-m-m
Be silent, still, or cease.
“be silent” in this verse is dommi. This command names silence after motion. Beside the earlier calls to quiet and gather in, it presses toward a complete cessation of violence.
ALSO GROWS
demamah: Stillness, silence.
דְּמָמָה
This noun gives the command a recognizable state of quiet, not just the absence of sound for a moment.
dumiyyah: Silence, stillness.
דּוּמִיָּה
This branch deepens the verse’s final command into a settling quiet.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures violence as something that can be stopped, sheathed, or remade into a tool for life.
He halts wars to the edge of the earth; he breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in two; he burns the wagons in the fire.And he shall judge among the nations, and shall set right many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they train for war anymore.Then Jesus said to him, Turn your sword back to its place, for all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.THE THREAD
Then Jesus said to him, Turn your sword back to its place, for all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.Matthew echoes Jeremiah’s movement: the sword goes back into its place. The shared image brings the command into the hand holding a blade now, where violence can be withdrawn rather than extended.
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