What Does Jeremiah 10:18 Mean in the King James?
For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse’s deepest force is spatial: settled inhabitants are slung from their place and pressed into narrowness until they encounter the result.
THE MEANING
You meet a judgment that is physical and severe: the LORD declares that he will sling the land’s inhabitants out at once and constrict them, so they “find it so.” The verse turns distress from an inward feeling into narrowing and forced displacement.
THE ROOT
וְהֵצֵרוֹתִי
wəhēṣērōtî
GROWS FROM
צרר
ṣ-r-r
To bind or tie tightly, and by extension to press in or constrict.
The root gives “distress” a physical edge: it is pressure that binds and narrows. Its sound-shape echoes צַר (ṣar, narrow or tight) and מִצְרַיִם (Miṣrayim, Egypt, the two narrows), so the verse presents distress as being pressed into a constricted place.
ALSO GROWS
ṣārāh: Distress, trouble, or a tight situation.
צָרָה
This related noun names the trouble that results when a person is pressed in.
ṣərōr: A bound bundle or small packet.
צְרוֹר
The same root can describe things tied together, making the verse’s distress feel like pressure closing around its inhabitants.
יֹשְׁבֵי
yōšəvē
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-š-b
To sit, remain, or dwell.
The Hebrew names these people as dwellers before saying they are slung away. The verse sets settled life against forced movement, turning “inhabitants” into a sharper picture of people uprooted from where they live.
ALSO GROWS
yāšav: To sit, remain, or dwell.
יָשַׁב
This verb lies behind the label for those living in the land, directly contrasting with their removal.
mōšāv: A dwelling place, seat, or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This related word keeps the idea of a settled place in view as the verse overturns it.
קוֹלֵעַ
qōlēaʿ
GROWS FROM
קלע
q-l-ʿ
To sling or hurl by means of a sling.
“sling out” in this verse is qōlēaʿ. The Hebrew verb gives the expulsion the trajectory of a projectile: the inhabitants are launched out of the land. The wording makes removal forceful and bodily, not a quiet departure.
ALSO GROWS
qālaʿ: To sling or hurl.
קָלַע
This verbal form makes clear that the verse’s removal is an act of force.
qelaʿ: A sling, and in another biblical use, a hanging curtain or panel.
קֶלַע
The noun names the instrument behind the verse’s image: a sling sends what it holds away from its place.
THE PATTERN
Scripture portrays judgment as forced displacement from a place of security into exposure or exile.
And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.THE THREAD
Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.The Hebrew verb for “sling out” in Jeremiah shares its root with the verb in Abigail’s image of God slinging enemies from a sling. Her line sets a life held in a bound bundle beside enemies hurled away, making Jeremiah’s forceful image unmistakable.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us