What Does Jeremiah 47:7 Mean?
How can you be still, when the LORD has commanded you against Ashkelon and against the seashore? There he has appointed it.
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
How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? there hath he appointed it.THE KEY
The sword cannot rest because the LORD has assigned its violence a target and a place.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks into the reader’s desire for the violence to stop: the sword remains active while its command is still in force. Ashkelon and the seacoast are named as its field, keeping the devastation specific and concrete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a plea for quiet means the violence has ended; the verse says the sword’s assignment is still active.
THE ROOT
יְעָדָהּ
ye'adah
GROWS FROM
יעד
y-ʿ-d
To appoint, designate, or set for a meeting.
The sword is not merely allowed to move; it is assigned to a specific place. The root also appears in מוֹעֵד (mo’ed), an appointed time or meeting, making the appointment feel fixed and particular.
ALSO GROWS
mo'ed: An appointed time, meeting, or festival.
מוֹעֵד
The shared root carries the sense of something set to meet at a designated time or place.
meyu'ad: Designated or assigned.
מְיֻעָד
This form names what has been allotted a particular role, as the sword is assigned its field here.
צִוָּה
tzivah
GROWS FROM
צוה
ṣ-w-h
To command or direct.
“commanded” in this verse is tzivah. The English word “charge” can sound like a general duty, while the Hebrew verb presents a command in force. The sword’s movement belongs to a directive, not to an unexplained drift of violence.
ALSO GROWS
mitzvah: Commandment or command.
מִצְוָה
The same root names a directed obligation, showing the force carried by the LORD’s charge.
tzav: A command or precept.
צַו
This compact form makes the word’s direct, imperative quality visible.
תִּשְׁקֹטִי
tishqoti
GROWS FROM
שקט
sh-q-t
To be quiet, undisturbed, or at rest.
“be still” in this verse is tishqoti. The question is whether the sword can cease its activity and come to rest. The verse answers that this quiet remains out of reach while its assignment is underway.
ALSO GROWS
shaqat: To be quiet or rest.
שָׁקַט
This verb names the cessation the verse asks about and denies for now.
shoqet: Quiet or resting.
שֹׁקֵט
This form describes the state the sword has not yet entered.
THE PATTERN
An assigned instrument carries judgment into a named field, keeping the violence concrete.
Woe, Assyria, the rod of the burning of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my seething.to do whatever your hand and your counsel had marked out beforehand to be done.THE THREAD
O sword of the LORD, how long until you are still? Gather yourself into your sheath. Lie down, and be silent.Verse 6 voices the wish that the sword would stop; verse 7 answers that it cannot while its commission remains. The pair leaves the violence explicit: the sword’s rest is held off by an active command.
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