What Does Jeremiah 50:6 Mean?
My people have been sheep that lost the way. Their shepherds made them wander, and turned them aside upon the mountains. They walked from mountain to hill, and forgot where they lie down.
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
My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.THE KEY
The people’s lostness begins in failed tending: their shepherds lead them from place to place until they forget where they can lie down.
THE MEANING
Your wandering can be shaped by those entrusted to tend you; their misdirection can carry you from height to height until you forget the place where you rest. The verse names both the leading astray and the forgotten resting place as part of this lostness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that wandering always proves you chose to leave is undone here: the verse names the shepherds’ misdirection as its cause.
THE ROOT
אֹבְדוֹת
ʾōḇədōṯ
GROWS FROM
אבד
Perish, be lost, lose the way.
“that lost the way” in this verse is ʾōḇədōṯ. אבד names more than a misplaced route: it can describe being lost in a way that approaches perishing. The verse then names how the people reach this condition: their shepherds lead them astray, and they forget their resting place.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāḇaḏ: Perish; be lost.
אָבַד
This verb shows that the word for “lost” can name a person’s condition, not merely a wrong turn.
ʾăḇaddōn: Destruction; ruin.
אֲבַדּוֹן
The same root can carry the weight of destruction, giving “lost” a more severe depth than simple disorientation.
רֹעֵיהֶם
rōʿêhem
GROWS FROM
רעה
Tend, pasture, feed.
“shepherds” in this verse is rōʿêhem. The word for shepherd grows from the root of tending and pasturing. Here the ones whose role carries the sense of feeding and care instead direct the flock into wandering.
ALSO GROWS
rōʿeh: Shepherd; one who tends or pastures.
רֹעֶה
The shared word shows shepherding as active care, making the failure of these shepherds especially clear.
mirʿeh: Pasture; grazing place.
מִרְעֶה
The root links the shepherd to the place that feeds the flock, while this verse shows the sheep being moved away from settled care.
רִבְצָם
riḇṣām
GROWS FROM
רבץ
Lie down, crouch, settle.
“lie down” in this verse is riḇṣām. The word for resting place is rooted in lying down. What the sheep forget is not only a destination but the place where they can settle and rest.
ALSO GROWS
rāḇaṣ: Lie down; crouch.
רָבַץ
This verb makes the resting place concrete: it is where the body lies down.
mirbāṣ: Lair; resting place.
מִרְבָּץ
This related noun shows the root’s movement from lying down to the place where one settles.
THE PATTERN
When care loses its way, people are scattered from nourishment and rest, while true shepherding leads them to lie down and gathers them.
My sheep strayed through all the mountains and on every high hill. Yes, my flock was scattered across all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.He lays me down in green pastures; he leads me beside resting waters.I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his living soul for the sheep.THE THREAD
Hear and respond to the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the far islands, and say, The one who scattered Israel will gather him and guard him, as a shepherd tends his flock.The phrase “as a shepherd” uses רֹעֶה (rōʿeh, ro’eh), from רעה (ra’ah): to tend, pasture, or feed, the same root as “shepherds” here. Jeremiah 50:6 shows shepherds leading the flock astray; this verse opens the same root toward gathering and keeping the flock.
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