What Does Jeremiah 46:10 Mean in the King James?
For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
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 verse calls its battlefield slaughter a sacrifice and describes the sword itself as saturated with blood.
THE MEANING
This verse places you before judgment in its full violence: the sword devours, fills itself with blood, and the slain are named as a sacrifice to the LORD of hosts. Its image makes vengeance bodily and costly, rather than an abstract verdict.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that its judgment is bloodless or abstract: it is pictured as a sword saturated with blood and a sacrifice beside the Euphrates.
THE ROOT
נְקָמָה
neqāmāh
GROWS FROM
נקם
n-q-m
To avenge or exact vengeance.
Hebrew repeats נקם in two forms: a “day of vengeance” is followed by the purpose “to avenge” the adversaries. The English separates noun and verb, but both the day and its action grow from one root.
ALSO GROWS
nāqam: To avenge.
נָקַם
This verb supplies the action immediately following “day of vengeance.”
nōqēm: An avenger; one who takes vengeance.
נֹקֵם
This form shows the same root can name the one carrying out the act.
זֶבַח
zevaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter or sacrifice.
“sacrifice” in this verse is zevaḥ. The closing word זֶבַח names the slaughter with the vocabulary of an offering. The verse holds the battlefield and the sacrificial image together, without hiding the violence in either.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb carries the same double sense that makes the verse’s battlefield image so stark.
zōvēaḥ: One who sacrifices; an offerer.
זֹבֵחַ
This form keeps the act of slaughter connected to the person presenting an offering.
וְרָוְתָה
wərāwətāh
GROWS FROM
רוה
r-w-h
To be saturated or drink one’s fill.
“made drunk” in this verse is wərāwətāh. Here the sword is described as saturated with blood. The same root can describe a weary soul being replenished, so the root names fullness while the surrounding scene determines what fills it.
ALSO GROWS
rāwāh: To be saturated; to drink one’s fill.
רָוָה
This is the root sense behind the sword being drenched with blood.
hirwēti: I have satiated or replenished.
הִרְוֵיתִי
Jeremiah uses this form for replenishing the weary soul, showing the root’s other setting.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s vengeance is presented as a decisive reckoning with concrete consequences.
For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.THE THREAD
For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.Jeremiah 31:25 uses הִרְוֵיתִי (hirwēti, “I have replenished”), from רוה (r-w-h, “be saturated; drink one’s fill”), the same root behind “made drunk” here. One root describes a sword saturated with blood and a weary soul replenished; the scene determines what fills it.
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