What Does Jeremiah 10:25 Mean in the King James?
Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.
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 Hebrew repeats one root for “eaten up” and “devoured,” then escalates to Jacob’s destruction and the desolation of his home.
THE MEANING
The verse names estrangement from God alongside the violence done to Jacob: the families do not perceive God or call upon God’s nature, and they eat Jacob up and lay waste his home. Fury is poured out in answer to that destruction. The four verbs keep the injury unsmoothed: eaten, devoured, consumed, and left desolate.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the claim that the fury is arbitrary: the verse directly attaches it to the eating and desolation done to Jacob.
THE ROOT
אָכְלוּ
ʾāḵəlū
GROWS FROM
אכל
ʾākal
Eat, consume
“eaten up / devoured” in this verse is ʾāḵəlū. The two verbs translated “eaten up” and “devoured” repeat the same root: English makes them sound like separate actions, while Hebrew repeats one consuming word. The line then advances to finishing Jacob and laying his home waste, so the damage accumulates from appetite to total ruin.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāḵəlū: They ate
אָכְלוּ
This is the root in “they have eaten up Jacob.”
ʾōḵel: Food; something eaten
אֹכֶל
The same root names both the act of eating and what is eaten; the verse casts Jacob as the object of consumption.
יְדָעוּךָ
yedaʿukha
GROWS FROM
ידע
yādaʿ
Know, recognize, perceive; knowing by encounter rather than information
“know” in this verse is yedaʿukha. The verb is yada: knowing or perceiving through encounter, not merely possessing information. Its negation stands beside the failure to call upon God’s name, placing the violence within a picture of estrangement.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, knowing
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root gives the verse’s absence of knowing a broader relational dimension.
yōdēaʿ: One who knows
יֹדֵעַ
The same root describes a person who knows or recognizes; here that knowing is absent.
קָרָאוּ
qārāʾū
GROWS FROM
קרא
qārāʾ
Call out, proclaim, summon
Qara means to call out or proclaim; paired with “thy name,” שֵׁם (shem, name as nature), it is an invocation of God’s nature. The verse sets the absence of knowing and calling against the attackers’ tangible acts of consuming and desolating.
ALSO GROWS
qerīʾāh: Calling; reading aloud
קְרִיאָה
The same root carries both calling out and voicing a text, making the call something expressed aloud.
miqrāʾ: Reading; assembly or convocation
מִקְרָא
This branch links calling with a voiced reading or gathered assembly, extending the sense of public invocation.
THE PATTERN
Violence against a people is answered by judgment, and the text states the injury plainly.
For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.THE THREAD
Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.Jeremiah 30:16 turns the same root אכל (ʾākal, eat or consume) back on the devourers: those who devour are themselves devoured. The shared verb makes the response concrete and directly answers the consuming named here.
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