What Does Jeremiah 49:17 Mean in the King James?

Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof.

Jeremiah 49:17 · 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

Edom’s desolation and the passerby’s astonishment share one Hebrew root: the ruin and the shock belong to the same word-family.

THE MEANING

Here Edom is a place made desolate in full view: passersby are astonished and hiss at its devastation. Ruin becomes public, audible, and impossible to overlook.

THE ROOT

שַׁמָּה

shammah

GROWS FROM

שׁמם

sh-m-m

To be desolate or appalled.

The noun translated “desolation” and the verb translated “astonished” both grow from ⁨שׁמם⁩ (sh-m-m, to be desolate or appalled). English makes one the condition of Edom and the other the passerby’s reaction; Hebrew draws both from the same root, so the witness’s shock echoes the landscape’s ruin.

ALSO GROWS

yishom: be astonished, be appalled

יִשֹּׁם

This is the passerby’s response in the verse, formed from the same root as Edom’s desolation.

shamem: be desolate; be appalled

שָׁמֵם

This verbal form holds the ruined state and the stunned response within the same root-family.

THE PATTERN

A ruined place becomes a public witness, drawing a visible and audible response from those who see it.

And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?

1 Kings 9:8 · KJVThe ruin of a place arrests passersby and draws astonishment and a hiss from them.

And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?

Nahum 3:7 · KJVThose who see the ruined city respond aloud, making its devastation public.

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Revelation 18:9 · KJVWitnesses see the city’s burning and answer with lament.

THE THREAD

To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.

Jeremiah 18:16 · KJV

Jeremiah 18:16 pairs ⁨שַׁמָּה⁩ (shammah, desolation) with ⁨יִשֹּׁם⁩ (yishom, be appalled), repeating the same root connection between ruin and the witness’s response. Its “perpetual hissing” extends that public echo beyond the moment of seeing.

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