What Does Jeremiah 49:27 Mean?
I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall eat the strongholds of Ben-hadad.
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
And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-hadad.THE KEY
The Hebrew says the fire “eats” the palaces: destruction reaches the seat of power and takes it in as fuel.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now in an image of judgment that reaches what looks defended: fire is kindled at the wall, then the palaces are eaten. No enclosure makes the seat of power untouchable when the consuming force reaches it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a wall or palace guarantees safety: the fire begins at the boundary and reaches the royal center.
THE ROOT
וְאָכְלָה
wəʾāḵəlâ
GROWS FROM
אכל
ʾ-k-l
To eat, consume.
The verb is literally “eat.” Hebrew pictures the fire as an eater taking the palaces into itself, making destruction feel immediate and bodily. The English “consume” carries this force; the root makes the image of eating audible.
ALSO GROWS
ʾokhel: Food; what is eaten.
אֹכֶל
The same root names what is eaten, making the palaces the fire’s food.
maʾakhal: Food; something edible.
מַאֲכָל
This branch keeps the image concrete: the royal structures become something the fire can take in.
וְהִצַּתִּי
wəhitsattî
GROWS FROM
יצת
y-ṣ-t
To kindle or set on fire.
“kindle” in this verse is wəhitsattî. The verb names an act of ignition: the fire is deliberately set alight at the wall. The verse places the start of the burning at the boundary of the defended city, where it can reach what the wall encloses.
ALSO GROWS
hiṣṣît: He kindled or set alight.
הִצִּית
This form preserves the active ignition expressed in the verse: the fire is set burning.
haṣṣātāh: Ignition; setting something on fire.
הַצָּתָה
This noun makes the root’s action visible as the beginning of a burn that can spread inward.
THE PATTERN
When fire names judgment, it is pictured as a force that eats through what it reaches.
But I will visit you according to the fruit of your deeds, says the LORD. I will light a fire in its forest, and it shall eat everything around it.But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall eat the strongholds of Ben-hadad.For our God is a fire that devours.THE THREAD
But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall eat the strongholds of Ben-hadad.“Devour” shares the root אכל (ʾ-k-l), “eat,” with “consume” here. Amos repeats the fire and Ben-hadad’s palaces, making the image unmistakable: the flame takes the protected seat of power as its food.
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