What Does Jeremiah 26:18 Mean in the King James?
Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
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 verse’s shock is that Zion’s sacred elevation ends as ground under a plow.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks of a sacred center brought down to exposed earth: Zion is furrowed like farmland, Jerusalem becomes rubble, and the mountain of the house grows wild. Its force is that a place’s sacred name and height do not make its visible form immune to ruin.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a place becomes untouchable by being called sacred: Zion is still plowed, Jerusalem still becomes heaps, and the mountain of the house still loses its built form.
THE ROOT
תֵּחָרֵשׁ
teḥāreš
GROWS FROM
חרשׁ
ḥ-r-sh
To plow or work the earth, opening it into furrows.
“plowed” in this verse is teḥāreš. The verse does not merely say Zion is damaged: the city is recast as soil opened by a plow. The root turns monumental sacred space into worked ground, making the city’s vulnerability physical.
ALSO GROWS
haḥōrēš: the plowman, one who plows
הַחֹרֵשׁ
Isaiah uses this form for the person working the earth; here Zion itself takes the soil’s place.
yaḥarōš: he plows
יַחֲרֹשׁ
The verbal form names the action that opens clods of ground, giving the image of the city being furrowed its physical force.
יְרוּשָׁלַ
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
š-l-m
To be whole, complete, or intact.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The city’s name carries the root of wholeness while the verse pictures it in heaps. The collapse reads as wholeness coming undone in the very place whose name bears that possibility.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: wholeness, well-being
שָׁלוֹם
This branch makes the contrast between the city’s name and its ruined condition audible.
shalem: whole, complete
שָׁלֵם
This branch sharpens the image of the city’s built order coming apart.
THE PATTERN
Places that seem permanent can be returned to ground when their sacred and built form is stripped away.
Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.THE THREAD
Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?The word for Zion being plowed comes from חָרַשׁ (ḥāraš), the same root Isaiah uses for the plowman who opens clods. That shared root makes the city’s undoing concrete: what is usually field is what the city is made into here.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us