What Does Jeremiah 19:8 Mean in the King James?
And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
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 uses one root for the city’s desolation and the witnesses’ astonishment: the ruin becomes so visible that even passing eyes are caught by it.
THE MEANING
Ruin here is exposed, not concealed: the city becomes a public scene of devastation, and every passerby is arrested into an audible response. The same Hebrew root names both the city’s desolation and the onlookers’ astonishment, so their shock echoes the condition they see.
THE ROOT
שַׁמָּה
shammah
GROWS FROM
שׁמם
To be desolate, laid waste, or appalled.
“desolate / astonished” in this verse is shammah. The city’s desolation and the passersby’s astonishment come from the same root. Hebrew lets the ruined place and the shock it causes echo one another in a way the English words conceal.
ALSO GROWS
shemamah: Desolation, devastation.
שְׁמָמָה
This noun shares the root behind the city’s desolation, keeping the state of the place joined to the astonishment it provokes.
shamemu: They were appalled or astonished.
שָׁמְמוּ
Isaiah 52:14 uses this root for those appalled by a sight, showing how the same root can name a witness’s response to what is laid bare.
שְׁרֵקָה
sheriqah
GROWS FROM
שרק
To whistle or hiss.
The verse repeats this sound: the city becomes a hissing, and the passersby hiss in response. What English can make sound like a label for the city is also the audible reaction of those who see it.
ALSO GROWS
sheriqah: A hissing or whistling.
שְׁרֵקָה
This noun names the city’s public condition as a sound that marks the scene.
yishroq: He will hiss or whistle.
יִשְׁרֹק
The verb describes what the passerby does, repeating the sound attached to the city.
מַכֹּתֶיהָ
makkoteha
GROWS FROM
נכה
To strike or smite.
The word rendered “plagues” carries the image of blows or strikes. The verse keeps the devastation concrete: the passersby react to the marks of what has struck the city.
ALSO GROWS
makkah: A blow, wound, or plague.
מַכָּה
This noun is the singular form behind the city’s “plagues,” making the devastation sound like blows received.
nakah: To strike or smite.
נָכָה
The verb exposes the action beneath the noun: the city bears the effects of being struck.
THE PATTERN
When a city’s devastation is exposed as a public sign, those who see it become witnesses to its scale.
And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.THE THREAD
As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:The Hebrew word translated “astonied” comes from the same שׁמם root as Jeremiah’s “desolate” and “astonished.” Isaiah shows that this root can name the shock a sight produces; Jeremiah makes that shock the response to a city laid waste.
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