What Does Jeremiah 10:2 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
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
Fear of the heavens can be learned like a path, but another people’s alarm does not have to become your way.
THE MEANING
The verse names the pressure of a world that treats what appears in the heavens as a reason for alarm and teaches that alarm to others. That shared reaction is not the only way available to the reader: the signs may be seen without their fear becoming the path underfoot.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a frightening sign, or the crowd’s fear of it, must be trusted as a command about what is happening.
THE ROOT
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
ד־ר־ךְ
d-r-k
To tread or step.
The Hebrew word for a way grows from the language of footsteps: a way is a route made by repeated steps. The verse’s contrast is between a path learned from the nations and a fear that does not have to become the reader’s own practiced route.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: Way, road, or course.
דֶּרֶךְ
The word used in the verse carries the sense of a route underfoot, not just an abstract idea.
darak: To tread, step, or march.
דָּרַךְ
This verb shows the physical action held inside “way”: a path is what feet repeatedly tread.
תֵּחָתּוּ
teḥattu
GROWS FROM
ח־ת־ת
ḥ-t-t
To be shattered or broken; to be dismayed.
The same Hebrew verb appears twice: first as the warning not to be dismayed, then as the description of the nations’ response. Its root gives the alarm a sharper edge than unease: fear is pictured as a shattering, and the verse distinguishes seeing a sign from being broken by its interpretation.
ALSO GROWS
ḥatat: To be shattered, broken, or dismayed.
חָתַת
This is the verb root behind both appearances of “dismayed” in the verse.
meḥittah: Terror, ruin, or destruction.
מְחִתָּה
This related noun shows how the root’s sense of being shattered extends from inner alarm to ruin.
THE PATTERN
A shared reading of threatening events can spread fear, but it does not have to govern the reader’s heart.
Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.THE THREAD
Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.Both verses use the root ד־ר־ךְ (d-r-k), the language of treading a way. Jeremiah 10 exposes a route learned from collective alarm; Jeremiah 6 brings the good way into view and names the choice not to walk it.
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