What Does Jeremiah 38:3 Mean in the King James?

Thus saith the LORD, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it.

Jeremiah 38:3 · KJV

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 doubled Hebrew form of “given” makes the handover emphatic before the verse names the army’s capture.

THE MEANING

This verse speaks plainly about power closing around a people: the city is handed into Babylon’s army’s grasp, and that army captures it. The Hebrew makes the transfer emphatic, then names the taking without softening it.

THE ROOT

נָתֹן תִּנָּתֵן

nātōn tinnāṯēn

GROWS FROM

נתן

to give, set, or place

The verb natan is repeated in an emphatic Hebrew construction, rendered “shall surely be given.” The city is pictured as placed into another power’s hand, making the transfer itself the verse’s first forceful claim.

ALSO GROWS

natan: to give, set, or place

נָתַן

The same root holds giving and placing together; here what is placed into another’s hand is a city.

mattan: gift, present

מַתָּן

This branch shows that natan names a transfer; in this verse, what passes from hand to hand is not a gift but the city.

וּלְכָדָהּ

ûləḵāḏāh

GROWS FROM

לכד

to catch, seize, or capture

The English “take” can sound like simple possession, while lakad names catching or capturing. After the emphatic handover, this verb states what the army does to the city.

ALSO GROWS

lokhed: one who catches or captures

לֹכֵד

This form names the one doing the catching, making the force behind the city’s capture explicit.

nilkad: caught or captured

נִלְכַּד

This form names the state of being caught, illuminating the city’s fate under the army’s power.

THE PATTERN

A declared handover names both a transfer of custody and the force that takes hold.

Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle.

Deuteronomy 2:24 · KJVThe verse declares a transfer into someone’s hand before naming the struggle that follows.

And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand.

Judges 7:9 · KJVThe declared delivery into a hand makes the coming encounter sound settled before it unfolds.

Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

Acts 2:23 · KJVThe verse places a divine handover beside the human hands that seize and kill.

THE THREAD

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.

Daniel 1:2 · KJV

Daniel uses the same Hebrew transfer pattern: natan, “give or place,” and “into his hand.” Jeremiah applies that grammar to the city itself, making the hand an image of custody and power.

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