What Does Jeremiah 50:13 Mean?
Because of the LORD's outburst, it shall not be settled, but all of it shall be emptied. Everyone who crosses by Babylon shall be stunned, and hiss at all her blows.
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
Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.THE KEY
Babylon’s ruin and the passerby’s astonishment share one Hebrew root, so the city’s desolation echoes in the stunned state of its witnesses.
THE MEANING
The verse names the collapse of a power under the LORD’s indignation: Babylon is uninhabited, wholly laid waste, and its blows are visible to every passerby. The Hebrew binds the city’s desolation to the witnesses’ stunned response through the same root.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a city’s power can make it immune to judgment: Babylon becomes wholly desolate.
THE ROOT
שְׁמָמָה
shemamah
GROWS FROM
שׁמם
sh-m-m
To be desolate, appalled, or stunned.
“emptied” in this verse is shemamah. The word rendered desolate, shemamah, and the word rendered astonished, yishom, are forms of שׁמם (sh-m-m), meaning to be desolate or stunned. English puts ruin in Babylon and shock in the passersby; Hebrew gives both one seed, making the witness’s response echo the city’s condition.
ALSO GROWS
shamem: To become desolate or appalled.
שָׁמֵם
This verb holds desolation and stunned response together in the same root.
shemamah: Desolation or ruin.
שְׁמָמָה
It names Babylon’s state in the verse.
yishom: To be stunned or appalled.
יִשֹּׁם
It describes the passerby’s response using the same root as the city’s desolation.
מַכֹּתֶיהָ
makkoteha
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
To strike, hit, or wound.
The Hebrew word translated plagues is built from the root for striking. The city’s ruin is described as the visible result of blows, not as an abstract calamity.
ALSO GROWS
nakah: To strike or hit.
נָכָה
The verb names the action contained in the word for Babylon’s plagues.
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
Its plural form refers to the blows whose effects are seen across the city.
THE PATTERN
When a city’s ruin becomes unmistakable, the witnesses’ stunned and audible response makes its collapse public.
And I will make this city a waste, and a hissing. Everyone who passes by there will be stunned and hiss because of all its blows.The traders among the peoples will hiss over you; you have become a terror, and you shall not be again for ages.Standing far off for the fear of her scourging, saying, Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.THE THREAD
And I will make this city a waste, and a hissing. Everyone who passes by there will be stunned and hiss because of all its blows.Jeremiah 19:8 pairs שַׁמָּה (shammah), meaning desolation, with יִשֹּׁם (yishom), meaning to be appalled; both arise from שׁמם (sh-m-m), to be desolate or stunned. The shared root makes the passerby’s shock echo the city’s condition, while the verse repeats the same hissing over its plagues.
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