What Does Jeremiah 49:25 Mean in the King James?

How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!

Jeremiah 49:25 · 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 city’s praise and joy do not make it invulnerable; the question holds its beloved identity beside the possibility of being left.

THE MEANING

You hear the shock in a place still called the city of praise and the speaker’s joy, while abandonment hovers in the question. The verse lets affection and exposure stand together: what is treasured can still be vulnerable to loss.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

A cherished place cannot be abandoned.

THE ROOT

תְּהִלָּה

tehillah

GROWS FROM

הָלַל

halal

Praise, celebrate, extol.

The city is named by praise, not merely described as a place that receives it. The same word family can name praise as a community’s voice and, elsewhere, as what a person calls the LORD.

ALSO GROWS

hallel: Praise; extol.

הַלֵּל

This verbal form makes the city’s praise something voiced and enacted, not just a reputation.

hallelu-Yah: Praise Yah.

הַלְלוּיָהּ

The familiar call to praise carries the same root, connecting the city’s name to praise spoken aloud.

מְשׂוֹשִׂי

mesosi

GROWS FROM

שׂוּשׂ

sus

Rejoice, exult.

The word means “my rejoicing,” making the city’s joy personal rather than abstract. Its root keeps that joy active: the city is a place of rejoicing, and the question makes its possible loss felt.

ALSO GROWS

sason: Gladness; rejoicing.

שָׂשׂוֹן

This noun from the same root shows joy as a shared state of rejoicing, fitting the city named for it.

asis: I will rejoice.

אָשִׂישׂ

This verb form shows the root as an act of rejoicing, giving the city’s “joy” a living, expressed quality.

THE PATTERN

A city’s praise and rejoicing give it a living identity, and their loss exposes its desolation.

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

Psalm 48:2 · KJVThe city is known through the joy associated with it, as Jeremiah’s city is named through praise and rejoicing.

There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

Isaiah 24:11 · KJVWhen joy vanishes from the streets, the loss reaches the shared life of the place.

And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

Revelation 18:23 · KJVThe silencing of a city’s ordinary voices makes its desolation audible.

THE THREAD

Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

Jeremiah 17:14 · KJV

The word rendered “praise” in both verses is ⁨תְּהִלָּה⁩ (tehillah), from ⁨הָלַל⁩ (halal). Here praise names a city; there the speaker names the LORD as “my praise” while asking for healing and deliverance.

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