What Does Jeremiah 4:24 Mean in the King James?
I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
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 for “trembled” shares its root with the word for “earthquake,” so the mountains are part of the quake itself.
THE MEANING
You stand in a scene where the mountains tremble and the hills shift. The upheaval reaches what seems most fixed: the land itself is in motion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that whatever feels foundational must be secure gives way here: even the mountains are shaking.
THE ROOT
רָעֲשׁוּ
raʿashu
GROWS FROM
רעש
r-ʿ-sh
To quake, shake, or rumble.
The root behind “trembled” also gives Hebrew its word for an earthquake. The mountains are not merely described as unsteady; their movement belongs to the same word-family as the quake itself.
ALSO GROWS
raʿash: Earthquake, shaking, or rumbling.
רַעַשׁ
This noun names the upheaval as an event, joining the mountains’ trembling to the earthquake itself.
hirʿish: To cause to quake or shake.
הִרְעִישׁ
In this causative form, the same root describes something making the world shake, expanding the image from motion to upheaval.
THE PATTERN
When the world’s order is overturned, even its most fixed landmarks move.
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.THE THREAD
And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:The Hebrew noun translated “earthquake” is רַעַשׁ (raʿash), from the same root as Jeremiah’s “trembled.” Jeremiah gives the shaking to the mountains; Kings names the quake itself, revealing the shared word beneath both.
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