What Does Jeremiah 4:13 Mean in the King James?

Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.

Jeremiah 4:13 · 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.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The verse renders devastation as weather in motion, cloud, whirlwind, eagle-speed, then names its human cost as being plundered.

THE MEANING

The threat gathers overhead, rushes like a whirlwind, and outruns the eagle; its images make danger feel immediate and too fast to outrun. “Woe unto us” gives voice to the moment a person recognizes they are being plundered and laid waste.

THE ROOT

שֻׁדַּדְנוּ

shuddadnu

GROWS FROM

שׁדד

To deal violently, plunder, or lay waste.

The word translated “spoiled” carries the force of being plundered and laid waste. Its root names the destroyer as well as the devastation, so the lament places people inside violence rather than describing mere loss.

ALSO GROWS

shod: Plunder, devastation, or violence.

שׁוֹד

This branch gives “spoiled” the weight of violent loss that the verse’s storm imagery brings near.

shoded: A plunderer or destroyer.

שׁוֹדֵד

The same root names the force that lays waste, linking the approaching threat to the people’s cry of being plundered.

THE PATTERN

When devastation approaches, Scripture renders it as a force whose speed outruns human defenses.

Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:

Isaiah 5:28 · KJVThe enemy’s approach is pictured as hard, fast, and whirlwind-like, just as in Jeremiah.

Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.

Habakkuk 1:8 · KJVThe horses’ speed and eagle imagery echo Jeremiah’s picture of a threat that moves faster than people can escape.

For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

1 Thessalonians 5:3 · KJVThe sudden arrival of destruction carries the same pressure of danger that cannot be outrun.

THE THREAD

Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.

Isaiah 33:1 · KJV

Jeremiah’s “we are spoiled” and Isaiah’s “thou that spoilest” grow from the same root, ⁨שׁדד⁩, for plundering and laying waste. Isaiah brings both sides of that violence into view: the one who plunders and the one left plundered.

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