What Does Jeremiah 9:17 Mean?
Thus says the LORD of hosts, Discern, and call for the wailing women, that they may come, and send for the wise women, that they may come.
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
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:THE KEY
Grief is treated here as a language that needs skilled voices to be summoned, not as a private feeling expected to speak for itself.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you where loss outruns ordinary speech: lament becomes a public sound carried by women whose skill is recognized. The repeated call and sending make mourning deliberate and communal; sorrow is given form and a voice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that overwhelming grief should be carried alone: here lament is a skilled voice summoned into the community.
THE ROOT
מְקוֹנְנוֹת
meqonenot
GROWS FROM
קנן
q-n-n
To lament or chant a dirge.
“wailing women” in this verse is meqonenot. The word points to voiced lament, not simply a feeling the women happen to have. The verse summons people practiced in giving grief a sound, making lament a recognized communal skill.
ALSO GROWS
qonen: One who laments; a lamenter.
קוֹנֵן
The verse calls for people identified by the work of giving sorrow voice.
qinah: A lament or dirge.
קִינָה
The lamenter’s work has a form: grief becomes an utterance that others can hear.
הַחֲכָמוֹת
haḥakhamot
GROWS FROM
חכם
ḥ-k-m
Wisdom, skill, or practical understanding.
“wise women” in this verse is haḥakhamot. “Cunning” here carries the sense of wisdom and skill, not deceit. The verse recognizes that lament, too, can be a practiced form of knowing how to give loss expression.
ALSO GROWS
ḥokhmah: Wisdom or skill.
חָכְמָה
The women are summoned for an ability that has been learned and practiced.
ḥakham: A wise or skilled person.
חָכָם
The verse presents the lamenters as people with a recognized capacity, not merely as bystanders.
שִׁלְחוּ
shilḥu
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, send away, or release.
“send for” in this verse is shilḥu. The verse does not only name the women; it sends for them. Shalach holds both sending and release, so the summons sets skilled voices in motion and gives grief a way outward.
ALSO GROWS
shaliaḥ: A messenger or one sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
The root’s sending sense is explicit in the act of summoning the women.
shilluach: A sending away or release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
The root also carries release, echoing the opening this public lament gives to grief.
THE PATTERN
When loss exceeds ordinary speech, a community can summon voices to give grief its sound.
Yet hear and respond to the word of the LORD, O women, and let your ear take in the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing, and each woman her neighbor a lament.And Jeremiah wailed over Josiah, and all the singers, men and women, spoke of Josiah in their laments to this day. They gave them in Israel as a statute, and behold, they are written in the laments.Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.THE THREAD
Yet hear and respond to the word of the LORD, O women, and let your ear take in the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing, and each woman her neighbor a lament.The word “lamentation” continues the root of the mourning women: the lament is something voiced, not only felt. Verse 17 summons women who know this language; verse 20 shows it being taught to daughters and shared with neighbors.
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