What Does Jeremiah 39:7 Mean in the King James?

Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains, to carry him to Babylon.

Jeremiah 39:7 · 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 Hebrew root for “bound” also names a prisoner, showing captivity as an act done to the body: sight is taken, movement restrained, and destination seized.

THE MEANING

The verse speaks plainly of bodily violence: sight is taken, the body is bound, and its destination is decided by another. Its sequence shows captivity reaching perception, movement, and place.

THE ROOT

וַיַּאַסְרֵהוּ

wayyaʾasrēhû

GROWS FROM

אסר

Bind, tie, restrain.

The Hebrew verb ⁨וַיַּאַסְרֵהוּ⁩ (wayyaʾasrēhû, “and he bound him”) comes from ⁨אסר⁩ (ʾāsar, bind or restrain). The same consonants appear in ⁨אָסִיר⁩ (ʾāsîr, prisoner), a person named by the condition of being bound; the verse’s chain is not incidental to captivity but its bodily enactment.

ALSO GROWS

ʾāsîr: Prisoner, captive.

אָסִיר

The captive is named through the same root as the act of binding, linking restraint with the condition of captivity.

ʾasurim: Bound ones, captives.

אֲסוּרִים

This related form carries the root’s binding into a condition borne by people, echoing the bodily restraint in the verse.

THE PATTERN

Power makes captivity bodily by constraining movement and controlling a person’s place.

But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.

Judges 16:21 · KJVSight is taken, the body is bound, and Samson is forced into a place chosen by his captors.

Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;

Psalm 107:10 · KJVThe psalm pictures captivity through darkness, affliction, and binding.

And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.

Acts 12:6 · KJVPeter’s chains and confinement make another ruler’s control over his movement visible.

THE THREAD

And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

2 Kings 25:7 · KJV

The parallel uses the same Hebrew root ⁨אסר⁩ (ʾāsar, bind) for Zedekiah’s restraint and repeats the loss of sight and forced transport to Babylon. It reveals blinding, binding, and removal as one sequence of violence.

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