What Does Jeremiah 48:14 Mean?
How do you say, We are mighty and men of strength for war?
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 say ye, We are mighty and strong men for the war?THE KEY
The word for “mighty” is rooted in prevailing, so the verse asks whether claimed strength can actually win.
THE MEANING
Your claim to strength does not guarantee that you can prevail; power meets its measure in what it can withstand. The question exposes the gap between calling yourself battle-ready and being able to endure the battle.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that naming yourself strong or gathering force guarantees the outcome.
THE ROOT
גִּבּוֹרִים
gibborim
GROWS FROM
גבר
To be strong or prevail, to prove stronger.
“Mighty” carries more than a description of strength: its root speaks of prevailing. The verse turns a declaration of power into a question about whether that power can actually overcome.
ALSO GROWS
gābar: To prevail, be strong, or prove stronger.
גָּבַר
The verb makes the claim active: the question is whether strength can prevail when it is tested.
gevurah: Might or strength.
גְּבוּרָה
This related noun names the power behind the claim, while the verse asks what that power can accomplish.
gibbôr: A mighty one or warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
This is the singular form behind “mighty men,” tying the identity of the warrior to the capacity to prevail.
אַנְשֵׁי־חַיִל
anshei ḥayil
GROWS FROM
חיל
Force, capacity, and strength; in use, also valor, army, or wealth.
“men of strength” in this verse is anshei ḥayil. The phrase calls them men of ḥayil: people marked by force or capability. The same word can describe a “woman of valor,” showing that this capacity is not confined to warriors or to battle.
ALSO GROWS
ḥayil: Force, valor, capacity, army, or wealth.
חַיִל
Here it names the military capacity the speakers claim for themselves.
ʾēšet ḥayil: A woman of valor or capability (Proverbs 31:10).
אֵשֶׁת־חַיִל
The same word can describe a person’s capability beyond the battlefield, broadening what this claimed strength can mean.
THE PATTERN
A claim of human might cannot guarantee that its bearer will prevail or be delivered.
Thus says the LORD, Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast in his strength, let not the rich man boast in his riches.No king is delivered by the multitude of an army; a mighty one is not snatched free by much strength.But God picked out the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; and God picked out the weak things of the world to shame the strong.THE THREAD
Who have said, with our tongue we will be strong; our lips are with us; who is lord over us?“Mighty” in Jeremiah and “prevail” in this psalm share the Hebrew root גבר (g-b-r), strength expressed as overcoming. One boast declares strength for battle; the other declares that speech itself will prevail.
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