What Does Jeremiah 50:26 Mean?
Come against her from the uttermost edge, open her granaries, heap her up as sheaves, and devote her to destruction; let no remnant of her be left.
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
Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.THE KEY
Here “destroy utterly” carries the root חרם (ḥ-r-m), placing the city under an irrevocable ban that reaches even what its storehouses conceal.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now of a power approached at its farthest edge, its stores opened, and its whole form piled into heaps until nothing remains. Its violence is total; no reserve or survivor stands outside the sentence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the assumption that hidden reserves or distance from a threat guarantee a place outside judgment.
THE ROOT
וְהַחֲרִימוּהָ
wəhaḥărîmûhā
GROWS FROM
חרם
ḥ-r-m
To ban or devote irrevocably; here, to devote to destruction.
“devote her to destruction” in this verse is wəhaḥărîmûhā. The Hebrew verb carries the language of placing something under a ban, not merely damaging it. The command leaves no portion outside that total claim.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāram: To ban or devote irrevocably.
חָרַם
This verb form exposes the root beneath “destroy utterly”: the action claims the whole city for destruction.
ḥērem: A thing placed under a ban or devoted, often to destruction.
חֵרֶם
The noun names what the verb does, making the city’s destruction an all-encompassing sentence.
סָלּוּהָ
sallûhā
GROWS FROM
סלל
s-l-l
To raise, heap up, or build an embankment.
“heap her up as sheaves” in this verse is sallûhā. The verb for piling the city into heaps belongs to the same root family as words for raised roads and siege mounds. The image is of elevation turned into ruin: the city itself becomes what is heaped up.
ALSO GROWS
mesillah: A raised road or highway.
מְסִלָּה
The same root that raises a path is used here for raising the city’s remains into heaps.
sōlĕlāh: A siege mound or embankment.
סֹלְלָה
This raised earth is used against a city; Jeremiah’s image makes the city itself the mound.
שְׁאֵרִית
she'erit
GROWS FROM
שאר
sh-ʾ-r
To remain or be left over.
The final clause names a remnant through the root meaning “remain.” The verse denies not only survival but anything left over to count as a remnant.
ALSO GROWS
shāʾar: To remain or be left over.
שָׁאַר
This verb gives the root sense behind the final denial: nothing is to remain.
sheʾar: A remainder or what is left.
שְׁאָר
This noun shares the root of “remnant,” making the verse’s endpoint explicit: no remainder is left.
THE PATTERN
When judgment reaches a fortified power, its structures are dismantled until its claim to permanence disappears.
For you have made a city into a heap, a walled city into a fallen place, a palace of strangers that is no city; it shall not be built for the ages.Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? Truly, I say to you, not one stone here is let go upon another stone that is not loosened.And a strong messenger lifts a stone like a great millstone, and throws it into the sea, saying, With a rush shall Babylon the great city be thrown down, and shall never be found again.THE THREAD
And nothing of the devoted thing shall cling to your hand, so that the LORD may turn from the burning of his anger, and give you compassion, and be compassionate to you, and multiply you, as he swore to your fathers.“The cursed thing” translates חֵרֶם (ḥērem), a thing placed under a ban, from the same root as Jeremiah’s “destroy utterly.” Deuteronomy names the refusal to keep anything from what is banned; Jeremiah extends that totality to the whole city.
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