What Does Jeremiah 51:16 Mean?
When he gives his voice, a roar of waters is in the heavens; he brings up the lifted ones from the ends of the earth; he makes flashes for the rain, and brings the breath out of his storehouses.
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
When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.THE KEY
The “vapours” are named as lifted things, while the wind is breath brought out from a hidden storehouse.
THE MEANING
The sky’s restless forces move at the voice: waters gather above, clouds rise from earth’s edge, and lightning, rain, and wind emerge. Even what comes from beyond sight has a source and is brought forth.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the wind is merely an ungoverned force: here it comes from a storehouse, brought forth by a voice.
THE ROOT
נְשִׂאִים
nesi'im
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
To lift, carry, or take up.
“lifted ones” in this verse is nesi'im. The Hebrew word for these clouds comes from nasa, “to lift” or “carry”: they are pictured as lifted things. The waters above are not simply appearing; the verse describes them as rising from the earth’s edge.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or take up.
נָשָׂא
This verb makes the cloud’s name vivid: the vapours are what has been lifted.
massa: A burden or load; something carried.
מַשָּׂא
The same root names what is carried, linking the clouds’ ascent with the weight of water held above.
רוּחַ
ruach
GROWS FROM
רוח
ruach
To blow or breathe; moving air.
Ruach is both wind and breath: the movement of air is one word, not separate ideas. A related form, ravach, carries an echo of relief and room, letting this wind suggest movement into open space.
ALSO GROWS
ruach: Wind or breath.
רוּחַ
The verse’s wind is the same ruach that means breath, joining the weather’s visible motion to unseen movement.
ravach: To have room or be relieved.
רָוַח
This related form echoes spaciousness: the wind released from its storehouse moves out into open air.
וַיּוֹצֵא
wayyotse
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
To go out or come forth.
“bringeth forth” in this verse is wayyotse. The verb is causative: he causes the wind to go out. The storehouse is not just where the wind is kept; the verse describes its release into the open.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out or come forth.
יָצָא
This is the root action beneath the wind’s departure from its hidden storehouse.
motsa: An outlet, exit, or source.
מוֹצָא
The branch makes the movement’s point of emergence visible: the wind has an outlet from what held it.
THE PATTERN
The unseen breath moves waters and weather, making hidden forces visible through what it sets in motion.
And the earth was unshaped and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the breath of God was fluttering over the face of the waters.He lifts the clouds from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain; he brings the breath out of his storehouses.The breath blows where it wills, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so is everyone who is born of breath.THE THREAD
And the earth was unshaped and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the breath of God was fluttering over the face of the waters.The Hebrew word for wind here is ruach, the same word in Genesis for God’s movement over the waters. Jeremiah’s clouds, rain, and wind echo that scene: the same breath still brings hidden motion into view.
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