What Does Jeremiah 51:38 Mean?
Together they shall roar like lions, and growl like lion cubs.
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
They shall roar together like lions: they shall yell as lions’ whelps.THE KEY
The sound shifts from a shared lion’s roar to the lower growl of young lions, changing pitch without losing its menace.
THE MEANING
You hear a threat gather in many voices, then continue in the rough growl of young lions. The verse lets that sound carry its own menace before describing any further action.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a threat only counts once it becomes a blow; here, the gathered roar already has force.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁאָגוּ
yish'agu
GROWS FROM
שׁאג
to roar, especially of a lion
“roar” in this verse is yish'agu. The first verb depicts a loud, recognizable cry. Its plural form makes the threat collective: the voices rise together, so the sound itself carries their shared force.
ALSO GROWS
she'agah: a roar or roaring
שְׁאָגָה
The noun gives the sound a presence of its own, matching how the verse makes the roar part of the menace.
sho'eg: roaring; one who roars
שׁוֹאֵג
This form describes the roaring lion in Psalm 22:13, keeping the focus on the force conveyed through its sound.
יִנְהֲמוּ
yinhămu
GROWS FROM
נהם
to growl, rumble, or roar
This second verb adds a lower, rougher sound to the scene: the roar gives way to a growl. The root also describes roaring beyond a lion’s cry, so English “yell” holds more of a rumbling quality than it first suggests.
ALSO GROWS
nehamah: a growl, roar, or rumbling sound
נְהָמָה
As a sound noun, it shows that the verse’s second cry has its own weight and texture.
nahamat yam: the roaring of the sea
נַהֲמַת־יָם
Isaiah 5:30 uses this form for the sea’s roar, revealing that the same root can carry the force of a deep, continuing rumble.
THE PATTERN
Lion-roar imagery makes predatory danger audible and difficult for the threatened person to ignore.
They gape at me with their mouths, a lion tearing and roaring.The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who will not prophesy?THE THREAD
The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who will not prophesy?Amos uses the same root שׁאג (sha’ag, “to roar”) for the lion’s cry. The shared root reveals the roar as more than volume: it announces a force that cannot be ignored.
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