What Does Jeremiah 49:26 Mean in the King James?
Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
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 warriors being “cut off” are also being silenced: the Hebrew root holds their defeat and the end of their fighting together.
THE MEANING
You see a city’s young men fall in its own streets while its men of war are silenced together. Its public spaces hold the collapse, and even its fighting strength stands beneath the word of the LORD of hosts.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this dissolves is that a city’s military strength can guarantee its safety; here, its men of war themselves fall silent.
THE ROOT
יִדָּמּוּ
yiddammû
GROWS FROM
דמם
d-m-m
Be silent, cease, become still.
The verb translated “cut off” comes from a root of silence and cessation, so the warriors’ defeat also carries the sense that they are silenced. This word-family can name stillness as well as an end, letting the verse hold both the loss of their power and the hush that follows.
ALSO GROWS
dōmmû: Be silent or still.
דֹּמּוּ
Psalm 4:4 uses this form, showing the same root’s direct sense of stillness.
demāmāh: Silence or stillness.
דְּמָמָה
This noun appears in the phrase “a still small voice” in 1 Kings 19:12, extending the same root from a halted force to silence itself.
בַּחוּרֶיהָ
baḥûreyhā
GROWS FROM
בחר
b-ḥ-r
Choose, select.
The word for “her young men” is linked with the root for choosing, carrying a shade of selected or prime youth. The verse places the city’s picked strength in the streets where it falls.
ALSO GROWS
bāḥar: Choose or select.
בָּחַר
The root brings the sense of selection into “young men,” hinting that these are the city’s prime or chosen strength.
mibḥār: A selection or the choicest of something.
מִבְחָר
This branch makes the loss sharper: even what is considered the city’s best is exposed to the same fall.
THE PATTERN
When judgment reaches a people, military strength and public rank cannot preserve the strongest from collapse.
Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.The stouthearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep: and none of the men of might have found their hands.And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;THE THREAD
Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.Jeremiah’s “cut off” is יִדָּמּוּ (yiddammû, “they are silenced or cease”), from דמם (d-m-m, “be silent or cease”); Psalm 4:4 uses וְדֹמּוּ (wədōmmû, “and be still”) from the same root. The shared word-family lets the warriors’ defeat and the psalm’s stillness meet in the language of silence.
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