What Does Jeremiah 49:25 Mean?
How is the city of praise not left behind, the city of my leaping!
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 is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!THE KEY
The city’s praise and joy do not make it invulnerable; the question holds its beloved identity beside the possibility of being left.
THE MEANING
You hear the shock in a place still called the city of praise and the speaker’s joy, while abandonment hovers in the question. The verse lets affection and exposure stand together: what is treasured can still be vulnerable to loss.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A cherished place cannot be abandoned.
THE ROOT
תְּהִלָּה
tehillah
GROWS FROM
הָלַל
halal
Praise, celebrate, extol.
The city is named by praise, not merely described as a place that receives it. The same word family can name praise as a community’s voice and, elsewhere, as what a person calls the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
hallel: Praise; extol.
הַלֵּל
This verbal form makes the city’s praise something voiced and enacted, not just a reputation.
hallelu-Yah: Praise Yah.
הַלְלוּיָהּ
The familiar call to praise carries the same root, connecting the city’s name to praise spoken aloud.
מְשׂוֹשִׂי
mesosi
GROWS FROM
שׂוּשׂ
sus
Rejoice, exult.
“leaping” in this verse is mesosi. The word means “my rejoicing,” making the city’s joy personal rather than abstract. Its root keeps that joy active: the city is a place of rejoicing, and the question makes its possible loss felt.
ALSO GROWS
sason: Gladness; rejoicing.
שָׂשׂוֹן
This noun from the same root shows joy as a shared state of rejoicing, fitting the city named for it.
asis: I will rejoice.
אָשִׂישׂ
This verb form shows the root as an act of rejoicing, giving the city’s “joy” a living, expressed quality.
THE PATTERN
A city’s praise and rejoicing give it a living identity, and their loss exposes its desolation.
Beautiful in its height, the leaping of all the earth, is Mount Zion, on the flanks of the north, the city of the great King.There is a crying for wine in the streets. All gladness is darkened, the gladness of the earth is uncovered.And the light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in you; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in you; for your traders were the great ones of the earth; for by your potions all nations were made to wander.THE THREAD
Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; deliver me, and I shall be delivered, for you are my praise.The word rendered “praise” in both verses is תְּהִלָּה (tehillah), from הָלַל (halal). Here praise names a city; there the speaker names the LORD as “my praise” while asking for healing and deliverance.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us