What Does Jeremiah 50:46 Mean?
At the sound of Babylon's capture, the earth quakes, and the cry is heard among the nations.
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
At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.THE KEY
The seizure of Babylon travels as sound: its impact shakes the earth, and the nations’ cry enters hearing.
THE MEANING
When a power that seems to hold many is itself seized, the disturbance reaches far beyond its center. The earth trembles, and the cry among the nations is heard; the collapse cannot be contained within Babylon’s borders.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a power affecting many can fall without its impact being felt or the surrounding cries being heard.
THE ROOT
תְּפִשַּׂת
tephissat
GROWS FROM
תפש
taphas
to seize, grasp, or take hold
“capture” in this verse is tephissat. The word translated “taking” grows from the language of grasping: Babylon is itself seized. The verse makes the event tactile, then lets its sound travel outward through the earth and the nations.
ALSO GROWS
taphas: to seize or grasp
תָּפַשׂ
This verb makes the force inside “taking” visible: the event is a seizure.
topes: one who seizes or handles
תֹּפֵשׂ
This form shows the root’s link to a hand taking hold, a physical image carried into Babylon’s capture.
נִרְעֲשָׁה
nir'ashah
GROWS FROM
רעש
ra'ash
to quake, tremble, or make a commotion
“quakes” in this verse is nir'ashah. The Hebrew verb describes quaking, so “moved” carries the force of the ground trembling. The root can name both the disturbance and the act of shaking, giving Babylon’s capture an impact the earth itself registers.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ash: an earthquake, quake, or commotion
רַעַשׁ
This noun names the kind of disturbance expressed by the earth trembling.
hir'ish: to shake or cause to quake
הִרְעִישׁ
This related verb makes explicit the shaking carried in the verse’s description of the earth.
נִשְׁמָעָה
nishma'ah
GROWS FROM
שמע
shama
to hear, listen, or heed
The outcry does not remain hidden; it is received as sound among the nations. The root can carry listening that responds, giving “heard” a reach beyond mere noise registering in the air.
ALSO GROWS
shama: to hear, listen, or heed
שָׁמַע
This is the verb behind “is heard,” joining sound with attentive reception.
shemu'ah: a report, tidings, or something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This related noun shows how hearing can carry an event outward as news.
THE PATTERN
When a power affecting many is shaken, its fall is heard across peoples and disturbs the order around it.
The nations roar, the kingdoms totter; he gives his voice, and the earth melts.The peoples shall hear and tremble; writhing shall grip the dwellers of Philistia.And they throw dust on their heads, and cry out, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships on the sea grew rich by her costliness! For in one hour she has been emptied.THE THREAD
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.The Hebrew root שמע (shama), “hear” or “listen,” underlies both “is heard” here and “have heard” in Exodus. The echo links the nations’ outcry at Babylon’s seizure with the cry of people under constriction: neither sound is lost from hearing.
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