What Does Jeremiah 44:11 Mean in the King James?
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah.
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 face set against Judah takes visible form in the threat to sever the whole people.
THE MEANING
The verse names judgment in concrete terms: the LORD’s face is set against Judah, and the stated end is calamity and the severing of all Judah. It holds divine opposition and communal loss together without softening either.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It breaks the assumption that divine presence always feels like protection: here the LORD’s face is the image of opposition, and its consequence is loss.
THE ROOT
לְהַכְרִית
lehakhrit
GROWS FROM
כרת
Cut or sever; in the Hiphil form, cause to be cut off.
“cut off” in this verse is lehakhrit. The verb belongs to the language of cutting and severing. The same root appears in כָּרַת בְּרִית, literally “cut a covenant”; here that verb names the severing of a people.
ALSO GROWS
karat: Cut, sever.
כָּרַת
The basic verb makes explicit the physical force carried by “cut off.”
hikhrit: Cause to be cut off; cut off or destroy.
הִכְרִית
This Hiphil form shares the verse’s causative sense: bringing about the severance.
karat berit: Literally, “cut a covenant”; idiomatically, make a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb can name the making of a binding bond; here it turns toward the severing of Judah.
THE PATTERN
Scripture describes judgment as consequential removal: those under it are cut off.
And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.THE THREAD
And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people.Leviticus repeats the same movement: the LORD sets his face against someone and declares that he will cut him off. The shared Hebrew verb כרת makes the connection concrete, the image of opposition ends in severance.
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