What Does Jeremiah 46:13 Mean in the King James?

The word that the LORD spake to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt.

Jeremiah 46:13 · 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 “word” here is more than an abstract message: it names a king’s arrival and a land under assault.

THE MEANING

The verse places you before a spoken word that names a king’s arrival and a land being struck. Its language holds the violence in plain view. Egypt, ⁨מִצְרַיִם⁩ (Mitsrayim), carries the image of the two narrows, so the announced strike meets a place named for constriction.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the idea that a divine word must be gentle or abstract: here it names a ruler arriving to strike a land.

THE ROOT

דָּבָר

dāḇār

GROWS FROM

ד־ב־ר

d-b-r

Speak, utter.

⁨דָּבָר⁩ (davar) can mean both “word” and “matter” or “thing.” Here the word names a concrete matter: a king coming to strike a land.

ALSO GROWS

dibber: He spoke; uttered.

דִּבֵּר

The same root names the act of speaking and the word spoken, keeping the declaration attached to a speaker.

devarim: Words, matters, things.

דְּבָרִים

This plural preserves the link between speech and the matter being spoken of; in this verse, that matter is an invasion.

מִצְרַיִם

Mitsrayim

GROWS FROM

צ־ר־ר

ṣ-r-r

Bind, press, or constrict; echoed in ⁨צַר⁩ (tsar), narrow.

“Egypt” in this verse is Mitsrayim. Mitsrayim carries ⁨צַר⁩ (tsar, “narrow”) with the dual ending -⁨ַיִם⁩ (-ayim): the two narrows. Here, that name sits beside an announced strike, holding the image of constriction alongside the land’s literal violence.

ALSO GROWS

tsar: Narrow, constricted.

צַר

The name of Egypt carries this image of narrowness into the verse.

tsarar: To bind, press, or trouble.

צָרַר

This branch adds the sense of pressure and constraint to the narrowing carried by the place-name.

THE PATTERN

A spoken word can announce a concrete event before that event arrives.

For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 12:25 · KJVThe spoken word names what will come to pass, joining declaration to a concrete event.

So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Isaiah 55:11 · KJVThe word goes forth toward an outcome, carrying its spoken purpose into what happens.

Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.

John 13:19 · KJVWhat is spoken ahead of time becomes recognizable when the foretold event arrives.

THE THREAD

Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

Jeremiah 1:12 · KJV

Both verses turn on ⁨דָּבָר⁩ (davar), “word” and “matter.” Jeremiah 1:12 makes the word’s movement toward fulfillment explicit, sharpening how Jeremiah 46:13 presents a spoken declaration with a concrete subject: a king arriving to strike a land.

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