What Does Jeremiah 50:14 Mean?
Line up against Babylon all around her. All you who tread the bow, draw against her. Hold back no arrow, for she has missed the mark against the LORD.
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
Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath sinned against the LORD.THE KEY
The Hebrew root beneath “sinned” means to miss, so Babylon’s offense is named as a miss against the LORD.
THE MEANING
This verse meets the reader now with Babylon under siege: archers surround her, shoot, and spare no arrows. Her offense is called a miss against the LORD, and judgment arrives in the verse as force, without softening its violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a powerful force can act against the LORD and remain untouchable; Babylon is pictured surrounded and judged.
THE ROOT
חָטָאָה
ḥāṭāʾāh
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
To miss, fail, or go wrong.
“missed the mark” in this verse is ḥāṭāʾāh. The Hebrew verb carries the image of missing or failing. Here the object is explicit: Babylon has missed against the LORD, a concrete sense that the English word “sinned” can leave less visible.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēṭʾ: Sin, offense, or a miss.
חֵטְא
This noun from the same root keeps the idea of an offense tied to the image of missing.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root names both the missing and an offering associated with it, keeping the offense and its response within one word family.
יְרוּ
yərū
GROWS FROM
ירה
y-r-h
To cast, shoot, direct, or teach.
“shoot” in this verse is yərū. The verb for shooting shares its root with Torah, meaning instruction: both carry the sense of directing something. English separates the arrow sent from instruction that directs, while this Hebrew root lets both meanings remain in view.
ALSO GROWS
tôrāh: Instruction or direction.
תּוֹרָה
The shared root links the arrow’s directed force with the act of directing through instruction.
mōreh: Teacher or instructor.
מוֹרֶה
This branch names one who directs or teaches, extending the root’s sense of directing beyond the battlefield.
THE PATTERN
Judgment answers harm with a measure shaped by the harm or intention that preceded it.
Whoever digs a pit falls into it; whoever rolls a stone, it turns back upon him.Shout against her, all around. She has given her hand; her foundations have fallen; her walls have been torn down. For this is the LORD's vengeance. Take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.Give back to her as she gave, and double to her double according to her works; in the cup she mixed, mix her a double.THE THREAD
Against you alone have I missed the mark, and done the evil in your eyes, so that you are aligned in your word and clear when you judge.Psalm 51:4 uses the same Hebrew root חטא (ḥ-ṭ-ʾ), meaning to miss, in “have I sinned,” and names the LORD as the one against whom the miss is made. Beside Babylon’s accusation, the same root appears as an owned admission directed toward God.
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