What Does Jeremiah 50:27 Mean?
Strike down all her bulls, and let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to them, for their day has come, the hour of their visitation.
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
Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.THE KEY
What sounds like a “visitation” is an appointed reckoning, and Babylon’s day arrives with its strength led to slaughter.
THE MEANING
The verse addresses the reader with Babylon’s bullocks going down to slaughter as its appointed day arrives. The reckoning stays bodily and direct: the verse keeps the slaughter in view as the power it names is brought to account.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a power can keep killing indefinitely without ever being summoned to account.
THE ROOT
פְּקֻדָּתָם
pequddatam
GROWS FROM
פקד
p-q-d
To attend to, muster, appoint, or reckon with.
English “visitation” can sound like a brief arrival, but פקד (paqad, to attend to, muster, appoint, or reckon with) also carries the sense of an appointed accounting. Here, Babylon’s day is the time its strength is gathered for slaughter.
ALSO GROWS
paqad: Attend to, visit, muster, appoint, or reckon with.
פָּקַד
This verb lies behind “visitation,” showing that the arrival is an act of reckoning.
mifqad: Muster, numbering, or appointed gathering.
מִפְקָד
The root can describe gathering and counting; here the appointed time gathers Babylon’s bullocks for slaughter.
paqīd: An officer or appointed overseer.
פָּקִיד
This branch carries the root’s sense of appointment and charge, deepening the force of a visitation that calls power to account.
THE PATTERN
A power’s appointed day of reckoning arrives, and its strength cannot keep it beyond judgment.
I will visit the world for its harm, and the wicked for their crookedness; I will stop the swelling of the proud, and bring the height of the oppressors low.So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God.THE THREAD
Behold, I am against you, O most seething one, declares the Lord GOD of hosts, for your day has come, the hour of my visitation upon you.It repeats the root פָּקַד (paqad, attend to, visit, muster, or reckon with) in “I will visit thee,” and names the proud directly. The shared wording makes the visitation an appointed encounter with the power whose day has come.
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