What Does Jeremiah 50:36 Mean?
A sword is upon the hollow ones, and they shall rave. A sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be shattered.
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
A sword is upon the liars; and they shall dote: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall be dismayed.THE KEY
The same sword falls on fabricated speech and human strength, placing both under the same judgment.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now in the blunt image of a sword: the liars become foolish, and the mighty are struck and dismayed. It names lethal violence directly, placing deceptive speech and human force under the same judgment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a convincing lie or formidable strength can make its bearer untouchable is undone here: both stand within the sword’s reach.
THE ROOT
חֶרֶב
ḥerev
GROWS FROM
חרב
To become dry or desolate; to lay waste.
The Hebrew word for sword belongs to a word family associated with desolation and destruction. Repeated twice, it carries the force of the verse across both targets: the fabricated word and the people who claim strength.
ALSO GROWS
charav: To become dry or desolate, or to lay waste.
חָרַב
This verb shares the sword’s root and brings desolation into the word’s background.
charev: Dry or desolate.
חָרֵב
This related form echoes the ruin carried by the repeated sword image.
הַבַּדִּים
habbaddim
GROWS FROM
בדה
To invent, devise, or fabricate.
“hollow ones” in this verse is habbaddim. The word rendered “liars” is tied to fabrication: the lie appears as something made. The next clause says its makers become foolish as the sword falls upon them; their construction cannot secure them.
ALSO GROWS
baddim: Liars or fabricators.
בַּדִּים
This is the plural form used for the people named in the verse.
bādāh: To invent or fabricate.
בָּדָה
The verb shows the making hidden within the word for liars.
גִּבּוֹרֶיהָ
giboreha
GROWS FROM
גבר
To be strong or prevail.
“mighty men” in this verse is giboreha. The word names people by their strength and capacity to prevail, then says they are dismayed, shattered. The verse makes their might a description, not a guarantee of safety.
ALSO GROWS
gābar: To be strong or prevail.
גָּבַר
This verb carries the idea of prevailing that is built into the name for the mighty men.
gevurah: Might or strength.
גְּבוּרָה
This noun shows the strength associated with the same root.
THE PATTERN
Deceptive claims and human force cannot make their bearers immune from judgment.
A false witness does not come away clear, and the one who breathes out lies loses the way.Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty ones in the war.Then Jesus said to him, Turn your sword back to its place, for all who take up the sword will perish by the sword.THE THREAD
A sword is upon the Chaldeans, declares the LORD, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.Both verses repeat חֶרֶב (ḥerev, sword). The image widens from the people, leaders, and wise men to the liars and mighty men, carrying the same destructive force across each group.
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