What Does Jeremiah 51:36 Mean?
Therefore thus says the LORD. Behold, I will contend your quarrel, and avenge your vengeance. I will dry up her sea, and make her spring run dry.
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
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.THE KEY
In Hebrew, God “contends your contention” and “avenges your vengeance”: the one who takes your case also dismantles the power behind it.
THE MEANING
The LORD takes up your cause and declares vengeance for you; the sea and springs sustaining the opposing power are dried up. The answer is forceful: what stands against you is not only challenged, but stripped of its source.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that your cause must go unanswered because the power against you is too strong for anyone to confront.
THE ROOT
רָב
rāv
GROWS FROM
ריב
r-y-b
To contend, dispute, or bring a case.
“contend” in this verse is rāv. English separates “plead” from “cause,” but Hebrew uses the same root for both: the LORD contends your contention. The wording places God inside the dispute, actively taking up the case.
ALSO GROWS
rîb: Case, contention, dispute.
רִיב
The noun names the very case the LORD takes up in the verse.
merivah: Strife, quarrel, controversy.
מְרִיבָה
The same root can name an active conflict, showing that the LORD enters the contention itself.
וְנִקַּמְתִּי אֶת־נִקְמָתֵךְ
wəniqqamtî et niqmāṯēḵ
GROWS FROM
נקם
n-q-m
To avenge or exact retribution.
The verb is paired with a noun from the same root: more literally, “I will avenge your vengeance.” The repeated root gives the promise an active, personal force.
ALSO GROWS
nāqam: To avenge, take retribution.
נָקַם
This verbal branch is the action promised in the verse.
neqāmāh: Vengeance, retribution.
נְקָמָה
This noun is the object of the matching verb, binding the promised action to the wrong being answered.
THE PATTERN
When a force holds people under its power, the LORD takes up their cause and confronts that power.
The LORD will fight for you, and you will hold your tongue.But thus says the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the terrifying one will slip free. For I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will deliver your children.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
For the LORD takes up their quarrel, and robs the living soul of those who rob them.Proverbs uses the same Hebrew root, ריב (r-y-b), for the LORD pleading their cause. The shared root makes the connection direct: here too, the LORD enters the contested case and answers those who prey on others.
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