What Does Jeremiah 52:26 Mean?
So Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
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
So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.THE KEY
“Brought” carries the sense of making them go: capture continues through control of their movement.
THE MEANING
The verse shows capture at the level of movement: people are taken from where they stand and made to go at another ruler’s command. The captor’s control reaches beyond possession to the direction of their bodies.
THE ROOT
וַיּוֹלִכֵם
wayyolikhēm
GROWS FROM
הלך
halakh
To go or walk; in the form used here, to lead or cause to go.
“brought them” in this verse is wayyolikhēm. The Hebrew verb translated “brought” is a causative form of הָלַךְ (halakh), “to walk” or “go”: he made them go. The root’s ordinary language of movement becomes the means by which their captor determines where they must go.
ALSO GROWS
halakh: To walk, go
הָלַךְ
This is the root’s basic movement, which the verse places under another person’s control.
holikh: To lead, cause to go
הוֹלִיךְ
This causative form makes the captor the one directing the captives’ movement.
THE PATTERN
Captive power becomes concrete when one person determines where another must go.
And Nebuzaradan, chief of the slaughterers, took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with part of the vessels of the house of God. He carried them into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.But Saul tore at the assembly, entering into every house, and dragging men and women, he handed them over to prison.THE THREAD
And Nebuzaradan, chief of the slaughterers, took these and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.This parallel uses the same Hebrew root הלך (halakh), “go” or “walk,” in describing the captives’ movement toward the king. Jeremiah’s form makes the action causative: they are made to go.
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