What Does Jeremiah 25:16 Mean in the King James?
And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among 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
The terror is both drunk and sent into the midst: the people reel as the sword enters their shared life.
THE MEANING
The verse presents collective terror as something swallowed and something unleashed among the people: they drink, reel, and lose their senses as the sword is sent among them. The violence is direct, and its consequences are bodily and communal.
THE ROOT
שֹׁלֵחַ
sholeach
GROWS FROM
שלח
shalach
Send forth, release, or let go.
“send” in this verse is sholeach. The sword is not merely described as present; it is sent forth into the people’s midst. The root holds the force of release and arrival, making the violence immediate and shared.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Siloam or Siloah, named as “Sent.”
שִׁלֹחַ
The sent waters at Siloam form a striking contrast with the sword sent among the people here.
mishloach yad: The sending or extension of a hand.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ יָד
This branch shows the root reaching outward into action, as the sword is released into their midst.
חֶרֶב
cherev
GROWS FROM
חרב
charav
Be dry, desolate, or laid waste.
The English names the weapon, while its consonantal family also names being laid waste and the ruin left behind. The sword carries devastation into the shared space “among them.”
ALSO GROWS
charav: To become dry or be laid waste.
חָרַב
This verb links the sword’s presence with devastation, the condition it brings into the verse.
chorbah: Ruins or desolation.
חָרְבָּה
This noun names the desolate aftermath that belongs to the sword’s word family.
THE PATTERN
The cup a people drink can become a condition that overtakes them together.
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:THE THREAD
And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.Siloam is named as “Sent,” from the Hebrew שִׁלֹחַ (Shiloach, sent), in the same word family as שָׁלַח (shalach, send forth or release) here. The shared root sets a sharp contrast: the sword sent among the people brings terror, while washing in the sent pool precedes the man’s restored sight.
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