What Does Jeremiah 49:5 Mean?
Behold, I will bring dread upon you, says the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those around you. Each of you shall be driven straight ahead, and none shall gather the wanderer.
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
Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out every man right forth; and none shall gather up him that wandereth.THE KEY
Two near-sounding Hebrew roots distinguish the blow from its aftermath: one thrusts people out, the other names the fugitive no one gathers.
THE MEANING
Terror comes from every side; each person is driven straight ahead, and no one gathers the fugitive. The verse holds expulsion and its aftermath together: the person forced into flight remains alone in motion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that someone forced out will necessarily be gathered by someone else; here, no one comes for the fugitive.
THE ROOT
וְנִדַּחְתֶּם
veniddachtem
GROWS FROM
נדח
to thrust away, drive out, banish
The KJV’s “driven out” and “wandereth” sound close, but Hebrew marks them with neighboring, distinct roots: נִדַּח (niddāḥ, “one thrust away”) and נֹדֵד (nōdēd, “one fleeing or wandering”). The echo binds imposed expulsion to its human aftermath without making them the same word.
ALSO GROWS
niddāḥ: one cast out, a driven-away person
נִדָּח
This branch names the person as the one thrust away, a meaning that echoes the verse’s expulsion.
hiddîaḥ: to drive away, turn aside, or entice away
הִדִּיחַ
This causative form makes the movement an action done to someone, not simply aimless wandering.
לַנֹּדֵד
lannōdēd
GROWS FROM
נדד
to flee, wander, move away from one’s place
This root gives “wandereth” the sense of flight or restless movement. Beside נדח (nadach, “to thrust away”), its similar sound carries a sequence: someone is forced out, then left a fugitive.
ALSO GROWS
nādad: to flee or wander
נָדַד
This is the movement behind the verse’s “wandereth”: flight away from one’s place.
nōdēd: one who wanders or flees; a fugitive
נֹדֵד
This form names the person by ongoing movement, with no settled place implied.
THE PATTERN
The scriptural counter-movement to scattering is a deliberate gathering of those driven away.
If any of yours are driven away to the outermost edge of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.The LORD builds Jerusalem; he gathers the driven-out of Israel.And not for that nation only, but that he would also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.THE THREAD
If any of yours are driven away to the outermost edge of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.Both verses use forms of נדח (nadach, “to thrust away”) for the person driven out. Jeremiah says no one gathers that person; Deuteronomy reaches to the far edge and says the LORD gathers and fetches them.
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