What Does Jeremiah 5:22 Mean?
Do you not stand in awe of me, declares the LORD? Will you not tremble before my face, who set the sand as the border of the sea by a statute of the ages, so that it cannot pass over? Though its waves churn, can they not prevail? Though they roar, can they not pass over it?
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
Fear ye not me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?THE KEY
The sea’s roar is not the measure of its authority; its boundary is an engraved decree.
THE MEANING
You stand before the One who sets a limit even the sea cannot cross; its waves surge and roar, yet cannot prevail. The verse holds power and order together: what seems unbounded is still contained.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The loudest, most forceful thing is not therefore the thing that prevails.
THE ROOT
חֹק
chok
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
To inscribe, engrave, or prescribe.
“statute” in this verse is chok. The word for decree belongs to a root that evokes engraving. The sea’s limit is pictured as a fixed mark in the world’s order, not a boundary the waves can wear down by surging against it.
ALSO GROWS
chuqqah: A statute or ordinance.
חֻקָּה
It is a prescribed measure, like the sea’s appointed limit.
chaquq: Inscribed or engraved.
חָקוּק
It carries the root’s image of a limit marked in place.
הָמוּ
hāmû
GROWS FROM
המה
h-m-h
To murmur, roar, or surge in tumult.
“roar” in this verse is hāmû. The Hebrew word holds more than loud sound: this root also describes commotion and tumult. The waves’ noise can be overwhelming, yet noise and motion do not make them sovereign over their limit.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: To murmur, roar, or be tumultuous.
הָמָה
The same verb family names the waves’ sound and their agitation.
hamon: A tumult, crowd, or multitude.
הָמוֹן
It shows how the root can name a mass of commotion as well as a sound.
THE PATTERN
Even a force that surges beyond its apparent strength remains within the boundary set for it.
And said, This far shall you come, but no further, and here shall your swelling waves be held?You set a boundary they may not cross; they do not return to cover the earth.And waking, he rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, Be silent. Be muzzled. And the wind wore itself out, and a great calm came.THE THREAD
You set a boundary they may not cross; they do not return to cover the earth.Jeremiah says the waves cannot “pass over” their boundary; Psalm 104:9 uses the same Hebrew root, עבר (ʿavar), for the waters’ forbidden crossing. The repeated root makes the boundary a recurring feature of how the waters are held.
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