What Does Jeremiah 48:36 Mean?
Therefore my heart moans for Moab like flutes, and my heart moans like them for the men of Kirheres. For the surplus he has made has perished.
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
Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kir-heres: because the riches that he hath gotten are perished.THE KEY
The heart’s grief is not silent inward feeling here; its Hebrew verb makes it a moan that can swell into a communal roar.
THE MEANING
The verse gives grief a voice: the heart moans like a flute as a people’s accumulated surplus vanishes. It speaks now wherever loss is real: grief can sound plainly when what was gathered is gone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that accumulated wealth can keep a people safe from loss.
THE ROOT
יֶהֱמֶה
yehemeh
GROWS FROM
המה
To murmur, roar, moan, or be in tumult.
“moans” in this verse is yehemeh. The verb translated sound carries the sense of a moan or roar, so the heart does not merely register grief; it gives grief a voice. This root also names the noise of a multitude, letting an inward lament swell toward a shared cry.
ALSO GROWS
hamon: Noise, tumult, multitude, or abundance.
הָמוֹן
This branch holds both a roar and a great many things together, widening the heart’s moan beyond a quiet private feeling.
hamullah: Uproar, confusion, or tumult.
הֲמֻלָּה
The sound belongs to a family of unrest, giving the flute-like lament the force of agitation rather than a neutral tone.
יִתְרָה
yithrah
GROWS FROM
יתר
To remain, be left over, or exceed.
The word translated riches carries the sense of surplus: what remains or exceeds. Here that surplus has vanished, so what seemed to accumulate cannot make itself remain.
ALSO GROWS
yithron: Gain, advantage, or profit.
יִתְרוֹן
This related word names what is gained, while the verse shows that gain can still disappear.
yoter: More or beyond.
יוֹתֵר
This branch keeps the sense of excess in view: the riches are what goes beyond, yet even what exceeds can be lost.
THE PATTERN
Compassion gives grief a voice when a people’s ruin becomes visible.
Therefore my bowels will moan like a lyre for Moab, and my insides for Kir-hareseth.Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the pierced of the daughter of my people!And when he drew near, perceiving the city, he wept over it.THE THREAD
Therefore my bowels will moan like a lyre for Moab, and my insides for Kir-hareseth.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew root, המה (hamah), for the inward parts that sound in lament. The shared verb makes grief audible in both passages: the heart and the inward parts themselves give voice to sorrow.
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