What Does Jeremiah 22:7 Mean in the King James?
And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
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 destroyers are described with the language of consecration: what is set apart can be set apart for devastation, and the prized cedars still fall.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks into the reader’s present wherever destruction comes with intention and force: what is treasured is named as a target, cut down, and thrown into fire. Beauty, strength, and being chosen do not make something untouchable. The image keeps the violence plain: the cedars become fuel.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is excellent or chosen is therefore beyond loss.
THE ROOT
הִקְדַּשְׁתִּי
hiqdāshtî
GROWS FROM
קדש
Set apart; dedicate for a purpose.
The verb translated “prepare” is built from the root for setting something apart or dedicating it. Here the devastators themselves are set apart for destruction: the language of consecration describes their assignment without calling the destruction good.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
It shares the root behind the destroyers’ dedication, showing that this root names separation for a purpose, not automatic moral goodness.
miqdash: A set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
A sanctuary and these destroyers share the idea of being set apart, though their purposes and outcomes are sharply different.
כָּרְתוּ
karatu
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut; cut off; sever.
The verse’s “cut down” uses כרת (karat), a root that also appears in the Hebrew idiom rendered “made a covenant” in Genesis 15:18. English divides felling from covenant-making, while Hebrew uses the same cutting root for both decisive acts; their outcomes remain different.
ALSO GROWS
karat berit: Make a covenant, literally “cut a covenant.”
כָּרַת בְּרִית
Genesis 15:18 uses this root in the phrase the KJV renders “made a covenant,” linking the cedars’ cutting to a Hebrew expression for establishing a bond.
karet: Cutting off; severance.
כָּרֵת
This branch makes the force of separation explicit: the cedars are not merely trimmed but severed from what they were.
THE PATTERN
What is prized or lifted high can still be cut down and consumed when judgment reaches it.
Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:The Hebrew root כרת (karat, cut) names the cedars being cut down here and appears in Genesis in the phrase the KJV renders “made a covenant.” English separates felling from covenant-making, while the shared root makes both acts of cutting visible without making their outcomes the same.
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