What Does Jeremiah 46:22 Mean in the King James?
The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood.
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 same Hebrew verb makes her serpent-like voice go and the army march, binding sound and assault into one movement.
THE MEANING
Her voice goes like a serpent while an armed force advances with axes, coming at her as woodcutters come to trees. Sound and bodily violence share the scene: the voice moves, and the cutting force arrives.
THE ROOT
יֵלֵךְ
yēlēkh
GROWS FROM
הלך
halakh
walk, go, proceed
“go / march” in this verse is yēlēkh. The Hebrew uses this same verb first for her voice and again for the army; the KJV’s shift from “go” to “march” hides the repetition. Her serpent-like sound and the attackers’ advance become two movements in the same scene.
ALSO GROWS
holekh: one who walks or goes
הוֹלֵךְ
This form names the one in motion; in the verse, both the voice and the army are given movement.
halikhah: walking; a course or manner of going
הֲלִיכָה
The root can describe a course as well as a step, fitting the verse’s linked movements from serpent-like voice to advancing force.
THE PATTERN
Scripture lets sound move through a scene, so hearing can register a presence already on the way.
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.THE THREAD
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.Genesis 3:8 places קוֹל (qol, voice or sound) beside a form of הָלַךְ (halakh, walk or go): the LORD God’s voice is heard walking in the garden. Jeremiah repeats that voice-and-motion pairing, then uses the same root for the army’s march, making sound and physical approach part of one moving scene.
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