What Does Jeremiah 52:20 Mean?
The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls beneath the stands, which King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD; the bronze of all these vessels was beyond weighing.
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
The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.THE KEY
“Without weight” does not mean weightless: the bronze is named in exact forms, but its total goes unweighed.
THE MEANING
The verse names two pillars, one sea, and twelve bulls, yet leaves the bronze’s total weight unreckoned. What is present can be counted without being fully measured.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what has no stated weight is absent: the bronze is present in named forms, while its combined measure remains unrecorded.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁקָל
mishqal
GROWS FROM
שקל
sh-q-l
to weigh or assess by weight
“beyond weighing” in this verse is mishqal. The word for weight comes from the action of weighing. Here, the bronze is not weightless; its weight is left unreckoned, a distinction the parallel account makes explicit.
ALSO GROWS
shaqal: to weigh
שָׁקַל
The verb names the action behind the noun: weighing is what the inventory does not do.
sheqel: a shekel, a unit of weight
שֶׁקֶל
The shekel turns weighing into a measure; this verse leaves the bronze without that measure.
THE PATTERN
A precise account can name what is present while admitting that its total exceeds measurement or record.
And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceedingly many. Neither was the weight of the bronze searched out.Many are the works you make, O LORD my God, the wonders, and your plans toward us. They cannot be laid in rows before you. If I would recount them and speak them, they are more than can be numbered.And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if they were written down one by one, I suppose that even the ordered world itself could not make room for the books that would be written. Amen.THE THREAD
And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceedingly many. Neither was the weight of the bronze searched out.This parallel says the vessels are left unweighed because they are exceeding many, clarifying the phrase in Jeremiah. “Without weight” describes an unmeasured total, not weightless bronze.
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