What Does Jeremiah 44:1 Mean in the King James?
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which dwell in the land of Egypt, which dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
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
Even a life settled inside constriction remains addressable: the word names not only the land but every place within it.
THE MEANING
The word meets you where you have settled, and it can name each station of the constriction you inhabit. Dwelling there does not make you unreachable or hide the shape of where you are.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Once I have settled in constriction, I am beyond the reach of the word.
THE ROOT
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צ־ר־ר
tsarar
To bind, press in, or constrict.
“Egypt” in this verse is Mitzrayim. Mitzrayim carries the image of the two narrows: constriction doubled. The verse names people who dwell there, so the narrowness has become a place of settlement, not just a passing squeeze.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, constricted.
צַר
This is the compact form of the narrowness carried by Mitzrayim.
metzar: A narrow place or strait.
מֵצַר
Psalm 118:5 uses this word for distress and places it beside the movement into spaciousness.
tsarah: Distress, trouble.
צָרָה
The narrow place is also an inner pressure; the verse makes that condition a named location.
יֹשְׁבִים
yoshevim
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ב
y-sh-v
To sit, remain, or dwell.
“dwell” in this verse is yoshevim. The same word is repeated for dwelling in Egypt and dwelling in its specific towns. Its root holds sitting and remaining together, making this more than a brief passage through constriction: the people are settled there.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: To sit, remain, or dwell.
יָשַׁב
The root joins physical sitting with the longer act of remaining in a place.
moshav: A seat, settlement, or dwelling place.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch makes dwelling concrete as the place where someone is seated and established.
דְּבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; a word or matter.
Davar can name both speech and the matter being spoken about. The word here is not detached information: it addresses the actual situation and the actual places where the people dwell.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: To speak.
דִּבֵּר
The noun “word” and the act of speaking grow from the same root.
devarim: Words, matters, or affairs.
דְּבָרִים
This branch keeps speech connected to the concrete matters a word addresses.
THE PATTERN
The word reaches people in the places where they are situated, even when they are scattered or dwelling in constriction.
The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.Jeremiah’s מִצְרַיִם (Mitzrayim, the two narrows) echoes מֵצַר (metzar, a narrow place), the word for distress in Psalm 118:5. The psalm then names מֶרְחָב (merchav, spaciousness): the narrow place opens into room.
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