What Does Jeremiah 46:17 Mean in the King James?
They did cry there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he hath passed the time appointed.
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 the loudest power is only noise once its appointed moment has passed.
THE MEANING
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is named as a roar whose appointed moment has gone by. Egypt, Mitzrayim (מִצְרַיִם, the constricting narrows), places him inside a pattern of tightness, but even that power cannot hold time open by making more noise. The verse speaks now wherever a force seems absolute because it fills the room: its volume does not mean its power will last.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a power that sounds absolute can make its moment last; this verse names its roar as noise after the appointed time has passed.
THE ROOT
מוֹעֵד
mo'ed
GROWS FROM
יעד
y-ʿ-d
To appoint, designate, or set a time for a meeting.
Mo’ed can mean an appointed time or a meeting; the phrase carries more than a neutral spot on the clock. Pharaoh has let the set moment pass, and the same word appears in Habakkuk’s vision of a time still to come.
ALSO GROWS
ya'ad: To appoint or designate.
יָעַד
The appointed time is something set, not something Pharaoh can extend by force.
edah: An assembly or congregation.
עֵדָה
The shared root links an appointed occasion with people gathered for it.
mo'adim: Appointed times or festivals.
מֹעֲדִים
These recurring appointed times show mo’ed as a meeting set to arrive, not merely passing duration.
שָׁאוֹן
sha'on
GROWS FROM
שׁאה
sha'ah
To crash noisily or become desolate.
“noise” in this verse is sha'on. Sha’on names a tumult or roar, while its root also carries the sense of ruin. The word lets Pharaoh’s clamor echo with collapse: what sounds forceful may already be falling apart.
ALSO GROWS
sha'ah: To crash, roar, or make a tumult.
שָׁאָה
The verb gives the noise a forceful, crashing quality.
sho'ah: Ruin or desolation.
שֹׁאָה
This branch makes the roar resonate with the ruin of the power producing it.
הֶעֱבִיר
he'evir
GROWS FROM
עבר
To cross over or pass by.
“passed” in this verse is he'evir. The verb form here carries the sense of causing or letting something pass. The line makes Pharaoh’s failure temporal as well as political: the appointed moment has gone by, and clamor cannot bring it back.
ALSO GROWS
avar: To cross over, pass through, or pass by.
עָבַר
The root pictures the appointed moment crossing beyond reach.
ma'avar: A passage, crossing, or ford.
מַעֲבָר
This noun from the same root makes passing a movement from one side to another, not a pause that can be undone.
THE PATTERN
Human power can fill the air with clamor while its claim to control is already empty.
For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.THE THREAD
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.Habakkuk uses the same Hebrew word, mo’ed (מוֹעֵד, appointed time), found in Jeremiah’s line. Here Pharaoh’s appointed moment has passed; there, the vision’s appointed moment is still ahead, joining an elapsed opportunity to a set time yet to arrive.
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