What Does Jeremiah 39:1 Mean in the King James?
In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
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 city whose name carries wholeness is surrounded by an army, and the siege does not erase its name.
THE MEANING
You see a place named for wholeness under a literal siege: an army comes against it and closes it in. The violence is real, and the verse holds that violence beside the city’s name without making either disappear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Wholeness means being untouched by violence. The city’s name remains even as it is attacked.
THE ROOT
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; to make whole.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries the ש־ל־ם (sh-l-m) family of wholeness. The siege surrounds the city without renaming it: the verse holds the name of wholeness beside actual violence.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being, peace.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness carried in the city’s name, still present in the verse as the army closes in.
shalem: Whole, complete, intact.
שָׁלֵם
The root lets the city’s name speak of completeness even while its walls face attack.
THE PATTERN
Scripture makes siege visible as surrounding pressure: enemies close in and build barriers around a city.
And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,THE THREAD
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.“Perfect peace” is שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) repeated, from the same ש־ל־ם (sh-l-m) root carried by Yerushalayim. That shared root keeps the city’s name audible beside the siege without pretending the violence is unreal.
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