What Does Jeremiah 48:31 Mean in the King James?

Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kir-heres.

Jeremiah 48:31 · 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.

THE KEY

The word for mourning also carries the sense of murmuring and meditation: grief gives the suffering people a voice and keeps them present.

THE MEANING

The line keeps the people inside their ruin visible: it names Moab, then mourns its men. A heart can perceive another people’s devastation without reducing them to the devastation itself.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that compassion ends where blame or hostility begins.

THE ROOT

אֶהְגֶּה

ehgeh

GROWS FROM

הגה

hagah

To murmur, utter softly, or meditate, to make a low sound or turn words over inwardly.

“mourn” in this verse is ehgeh. This verb for mourning comes from a root also used for murmuring and meditation. The grief here is not merely an inward feeling: it is a voiced attention that keeps the people in view.

ALSO GROWS

hagah: To murmur, utter, or meditate.

הָגָה

The same root can name low speech and inward pondering, revealing mourning as voiced attention.

hegyon: Musing, meditation, or a resonant sound.

הֶגְיוֹן

Psalm 19:14 uses this related word for the heart’s meditation, echoing the inward sound carried by the mourning here.

THE PATTERN

Lament keeps suffering people visible even while their ruin is being spoken aloud.

How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

Hosea 11:8 · KJVThe heart turns within as it asks how it can give Ephraim up, holding grief alongside the prospect of loss.

And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

Luke 19:41 · KJVThe city’s approaching ruin does not make it an abstraction; it is seen and wept over.

That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

Romans 9:2 · KJVSorrow remains present in the heart for other people, rather than vanishing when their fate is named.

THE THREAD

Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.

Isaiah 38:14 · KJV

Isaiah uses the same verb, ⁨אֶהְגֶּה⁩ (ehgeh), for mourning as a dove. The shared root makes the grief in Jeremiah audible too: mourning is a low utterance, not only an emotion.

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