What Does Jeremiah 22:10 Mean in the King James?

Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

Jeremiah 22:10 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The verse places grief not only on death, but on a living departure that closes the way back to the place of one’s beginning.

THE MEANING

This verse gives voice to the grief of someone who remains alive yet is cut off from the land of their birth, with no return and no further sight of it. It recognizes that permanent separation carries its own finality.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that only death makes separation final: a living person can also be permanently cut off from home.

THE ROOT

יָשׁוּב

yāshūv

GROWS FROM

שׁוּב

shuv

Turn back; return.

The root ⁨שׁוּב⁩ (shuv, turn back or return) makes the closed possibility of return the heart of the loss. The pain is not only being far away, but being unable to turn back toward home.

ALSO GROWS

teshuvah: Return; turning back.

תְּשׁוּבָה

This branch shows the same root as a movement back toward what was left behind, making its absence here tangible.

hēshîv: Bring back; restore.

הֵשִׁיב

The causative form carries the possibility of being brought back, a possibility this verse says is gone.

אֶרֶץ מוֹלַדְתּוֹ

ʾéreṣ mōladtô

GROWS FROM

יָלַד

yalad

Bear; give birth; beget.

“native country” in this verse is ʾéreṣ mōladtô. The phrase means the land of his birth: home is described through the place where life began, not only as a territory or political boundary. The person who cannot return is cut off from the ground of their own beginning.

ALSO GROWS

moledet: Birthplace; nativity.

מוֹלֶדֶת

This word names the origin carried inside “native country,” showing what the departure separates him from.

yeled: Child.

יֶלֶד

This branch names one who is born, echoing the birth-root inside the phrase for one’s homeland.

THE PATTERN

Separation carries a distinct grief when departure cuts off the possibility of returning to one’s place of origin.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

Psalm 137:1 · KJVThe remembered homeland remains present in grief even while the body sits beside a foreign river.

And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

Hebrews 11:15 · KJVThe possibility of returning to a former country makes departure itself part of the verse’s tension.

I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

Genesis 31:13 · KJVThe command to return to one’s kindred land presents departure as a movement that can still be reversed.

THE THREAD

Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

Jeremiah 3:12 · KJV

Both verses turn on ⁨שׁוּב⁩ (shuv, turn back or return): here the return is closed, while Jeremiah 3:12 still calls for it and meets it with mercy. The shared root makes the loss of return itself the center of this grief.

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