What Does Jeremiah 25:18 Mean in the King James?
To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
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
A city whose name carries the echo of wholeness becomes a place of ruin that others witness, hiss at, and call cursed.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the reader now of a community laid bare: its city, towns, rulers, and public standing are handed over to ruin and scorn. The collapse becomes visible and audible through astonishment, hissing, and curse; the verse does not hide its violence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a sacred city or powerful rulers are beyond devastation is undone: Jerusalem, Judah, its kings, and its princes all stand inside the ruin named here.
THE ROOT
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; the wholeness carried in shalom.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name Yerushalayim carries the wholeness heard in shalom. Here that name is placed among what is made desolate, so the verse holds the fracture inside the name itself.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
The city’s name carries this sound of wholeness even as the verse describes its ruin.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the contrast with the city’s devastation especially sharp.
שַׁמָּה
shammah
GROWS FROM
שמם
sh-m-m
To be desolate or appalled.
The Hebrew word rendered “astonishment” belongs to the same word family as desolation. The shock is bound to the ruined scene that produces it.
ALSO GROWS
shamem: To be desolate or appalled.
שָׁמֵם
The reaction of astonishment grows from the condition of desolation.
shemamah: Desolation, wasteland.
שְׁמָמָה
This branch shows the devastated state behind the onlooker’s shock.
לִשְׁרֵקָה
lishreqah
GROWS FROM
שרק
sh-r-q
To whistle or hiss.
“hissing” in this verse is lishreqah. The root names an audible reaction, not merely a condition. The ruin acquires an audience and becomes a sound people make as they pass it.
ALSO GROWS
sharaq: To whistle or hiss.
שָׁרַק
The verb makes the response to the devastation immediate and audible.
shriqah: A whistling or hissing.
שְׁרִיקָה
This noun names the public sound that the verse says will accompany the city’s ruin.
THE PATTERN
When a community’s ruin becomes public, devastation is seen, heard, and carried in the speech of others.
And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee.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?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,THE THREAD
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?Jeremiah’s “hissing” comes from the same root as the passersby who “shall hiss” at the house in 1 Kings. In both verses, devastation becomes an audible public response to what people see.
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