What Does Jeremiah 31:35 Mean in the King James?
Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
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 sea does not need to be quiet to remain under the LORD’s command; even its roar is within the order he sustains.
THE MEANING
The lights above you keep their appointed courses, while the sea can roar within the same continuing order. The verse presents the LORD’s sustaining power as reaching both the steady sky and the surging waters.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The world’s turbulence means creation has slipped beyond the one who sustains it.
THE ROOT
מְרַגֵּעַ
meraggaʿ
GROWS FROM
רגע
To stir or rouse; in another branch of the root family, to quiet or come to rest.
The verb rendered “divideth” also carries the force of stirring or rousing. The sea’s roar itself unfolds within the command of the one who gives the lights their order.
ALSO GROWS
regaʿ: A moment, a brief instant (Isaiah 54:7).
רֶגַע
This related form gives the root family a sense of suddenness, echoing the sea’s movement as an event within the LORD’s order.
margoaʿ: Rest, quietness, a place of repose (Jeremiah 6:16).
מַרְגּוֹעַ
This branch names repose, showing the root family’s reach from disturbance toward rest.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s authority encompasses both the fixed order of creation and its surging waters.
Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.THE THREAD
But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew verb for the LORD’s action toward the roaring sea, revealing a repeated connection between that verb and the waters’ surge. The shared ending, “The LORD of hosts is his name,” ties the sea’s roar to the nature named in both verses.
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