What Does Jeremiah 50:15 Mean?
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.
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
Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.THE KEY
The verse makes vengeance a mirror: what she has done becomes the measure of what is done to her.
THE MEANING
A power may appear secured by foundations and walls, yet its violence does not remain one-way. The LORD’s vengeance brings what she has done back upon her: the foundations fall and the walls are thrown down. The verse keeps the destruction in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A fortified power can do harm without ever facing its own measure.
THE ROOT
נְקָמָה
neqāmāh
GROWS FROM
נקם
To avenge, to exact retribution.
“the LORD's vengeance” in this verse is neqāmāh. The Hebrew repeats the same root in “vengeance” and “take vengeance,” binding the named judgment to its enactment. Vengeance here is not abstract: the verse gives it a concrete form in the city’s fallen defenses.
ALSO GROWS
nāqam: To avenge; to take vengeance.
נָקַם
The verb carries the same root into the command to act upon her.
neqāmāh: Vengeance; retribution.
נְקָמָה
The noun names the judgment as the LORD’s before the verse describes its execution.
מֹסְדֹתֶיהָ
mōsədōṯehā
GROWS FROM
יסד
To establish; to lay a foundation.
The word for foundations carries the action of establishing inside it: these are what has been laid down as the city’s base. Their fall removes what was meant to hold the structure in place, not only its visible defenses.
ALSO GROWS
yāsad: To establish; to lay a foundation.
יָסַד
This verb is the seed behind the word for foundations and gives the collapse the force of an undoing.
yesōd: Foundation; base.
יְסוֹד
This noun names the underlying support that the verse says has fallen.
THE PATTERN
The deed a person or power sets in motion returns as the measure by which that person or power is judged.
For near is the day of the LORD upon all the nations. As you have done, so will it be done to you. Your repayment turns back upon your own head.For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.THE THREAD
Polish the arrows; fill the quivers. The LORD has roused the breath of the kings of the Medes, for his purpose is against Babylon, to ruin it, because it is the LORD'S vengeance, the vengeance of his temple.The same Hebrew root, נקם, names vengeance in both verses. Here it is named as both the LORD’s vengeance and the vengeance of his temple, connecting the judgment to the harm done to what is set apart.
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