What Does Jeremiah 50:29 Mean?
Raise a call against Babylon, all who tread the bow. Camp against her all around, and let none of her slip free. Repay her according to her work, and according to all she has done, do to her, for she has boiled over against the LORD, against the Set-Apart One of Israel.
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
Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.THE KEY
The word rendered “proud” names presumptuous defiance, making Babylon’s self-exaltation an act aimed directly against the LORD.
THE MEANING
The verse places you before a sentence of uncompromising judgment: Babylon is surrounded, denied escape, and repaid according to all she has done. Its charge is presumptuous defiance against the LORD, the Set-Apart One of Israel. The violence of the sentence remains exposed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that power can make itself untouchable: Babylon’s force does not exempt her from the measure of her own deeds.
THE ROOT
הֵזִידָה
hezidah
GROWS FROM
זוד
zud
To act presumptuously or insolently, with an older image of boiling or swelling up.
The word rendered “proud” describes an action: Babylon has acted presumptuously against the LORD. Its boiling-over image joins inward swelling to outward defiance, making arrogance an act with consequences, not a passing emotion.
ALSO GROWS
zēd: A person marked by insolent self-assertion.
זֵד
It shows that the root can name the person shaped by the same defiant posture.
zādôn: Presumptuous conduct or arrogance.
זָדוֹן
It names the defiant act itself, matching the verse’s charge against Babylon.
שִׁלְמוּ
shillmu
GROWS FROM
שלם
shalam
To be complete, make whole, or repay.
“Repay” in this verse is shillmu. The command to recompense shares its root with the word for wholeness. Here the measure is severe: judgment is pictured as a complete return of deeds, “according to all that she hath done.”
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness or well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
It reveals the root’s wider sense of completeness behind the verse’s demand for a full accounting.
shillēm: To pay back or recompense.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch carries the same action as the verse’s command: repayment measured against what was done.
קְדוֹשׁ
qadosh
GROWS FROM
קדש
qadash
To set apart, mark as distinct or sacred.
“Set-Apart One” in this verse is qadosh. The title “Holy One” carries the concrete force of the One set apart. That sharpens the charge: Babylon’s presumption is directed against the One whose nature is distinct and sacred.
ALSO GROWS
qōdesh: What is set apart as sacred.
קֹדֶשׁ
It opens the title into the quality Babylon’s defiance confronts.
qiddēsh: To set something apart as sacred.
קִדֵּשׁ
It shows the root as an act of separation, deepening the force of the title “Holy One.”
THE PATTERN
Deeds committed in power return upon the one who performs them.
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.His toil turns back upon his head, and his violence comes down upon his skull.Do not be led astray. God is not sneered at. For whatever a person sows, that also he reaps.THE THREAD
Now I perceive that the LORD is greater than all gods, for in the thing in which they boiled up against them, he was above them.Both verses use זוד (zud, to act presumptuously): Exodus names the oppressors’ proud action, while Jeremiah applies that same charge to Babylon against the LORD. The shared verb links power swelling into defiance with the judgment that answers it.
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