What Does Jeremiah 6:23 Mean?
They grip bow and spear. They are cruel, and they have no compassion. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, each set in rank like a man for battle, against you, daughter of Zion.
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 lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.THE KEY
The root that names the womb also names compassion, so “no mercy” is a refusal of tenderness at its source.
THE MEANING
The threat comes armed, mounted, and arranged against you; its roar is as overwhelming as the sea. The verse calls it cruel because it withholds compassion, and its order does nothing to soften that violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a force becomes merciful because it is disciplined, numerous, or arranged for war.
THE ROOT
יְרַחֵמוּ
yerachemu
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ם
r-ḥ-m
A root linking the womb with tender compassion and the act of showing compassion.
יְרַחֵמוּ (yerachemu) means “they will show compassion”; with לֹא (lo, “not”), the verse says they withhold it. The root also names the womb, giving their lack of compassion the sense of withheld tenderness, not merely withheld pardon.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: womb
רֶחֶם
The shared root makes compassion tangible as tender care, deepening what the attackers withhold.
rachum: compassionate, tender
רַחוּם
This adjective names the quality the verb denies: the attackers do not act with compassion.
rachamim: compassion
רַחֲמִים
This familiar noun preserves the same root meaning that English renders here as “mercy.”
יֶהֱמֶה
yeheméh
GROWS FROM
ה־מ־ה
h-m-h
To murmur, roar, or surge with sound.
“roars” in this verse is yeheméh. This root describes both roaring and tumultuous noise, so the voice can feel like more than one loud speaker: it swells like a crowd or a sea. The comparison gives the threat a sound that fills the whole field.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: to roar, murmur, or make a tumult
הָמָה
This verb shares the sound-root of יֶהֱמֶה, making the voice’s roar feel like a rising disturbance.
hamon: tumult, multitude
הָמוֹן
This related word connects the roar with crowd-sized noise, illuminating the verse’s sea-like force.
THE PATTERN
Scripture uses a sea-like voice to make a sound too vast to be heard as one speaker.
Woe to the roaring of many peoples, who roar like the roar of seas; and to the crashing of nations, who crash like the crashing of mighty waters!Who stills the roar of the seas, the crash of their waves, and the roar of the peoples.And I hear the voice of a great crowd, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah! For the LORD God who holds all governs.THE THREAD
And I will sow her for myself in the earth. I will have compassion on the one who had not received compassion, and I will say to those who were not my people, You are my people, and they will say, You are my God.Jeremiah uses the root ר־ח־ם (r-ḥ-m) for the compassion the attackers withhold; Hosea uses that same root when speaking of compassion received. The shared word makes the contrast concrete: compassion can be withheld, or given.
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