What Does Jeremiah 49:29 Mean in the King James?
Their tents and their flocks shall they take away: they shall take to themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, Fear is on every side.
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 final cry makes terror a perimeter: what is taken is not only property, but the sense that any direction remains safe.
THE MEANING
When shelter, livelihood, coverings, tools, and transport are stripped away, loss reaches every layer of ordinary security. The cry “Fear is on every side” names the experience of finding no direction free from threat; fear becomes a shared reading of the whole scene.
THE ROOT
מָגוֹר
magor
GROWS FROM
גור
To sojourn or dwell as a stranger; also to shrink back in fear.
“Fear” in this verse is magor. The Hebrew מָגוֹר (magor, terror) carries the same consonants as a root that also has the sense of sojourning and shrinking back. Beside the stolen tents, that echo lets the verse hold both removed shelter and the dread of being left exposed.
ALSO GROWS
gur: To sojourn or dwell as a resident stranger.
גּוּר
This sense of the root brings the verse’s stolen tents into the sound of its word for terror.
gur: To shrink back or be afraid.
גּוּר
This is the root’s fear sense, carried here by magor, terror.
מִסָּבִיב
missaviv
GROWS FROM
סבב
To turn, go around, or encircle.
The Hebrew describes terror as being around the people, making the perimeter itself feel occupied by threat. “Every side” is the shape of their exposure, not merely a measure of how frightened they feel.
ALSO GROWS
sabab: To turn around or surround.
סָבַב
This verb gives the surrounding motion beneath the verse’s spatial image.
saviv: Around, on every side.
סָבִיב
This is the word that makes the terror feel all-encompassing.
וְקָרְאוּ
veqar'u
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call out, summon, proclaim, or name.
The verse uses a verb of calling: the terror is voiced to others and becomes the announcement that names the whole scene. English “cry” can sound like a private reaction, while this root also carries the force of calling something out.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To call out or proclaim.
קָרָא
This is the action in the verse: they call out the danger to one another.
miqra: A convocation or public reading.
מִקְרָא
This related noun shows how the root of a cry can also name something publicly called together or proclaimed.
THE PATTERN
When danger surrounds ordinary means of safety, terror is named as the whole horizon rather than one isolated threat.
For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.THE THREAD
For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.Psalm 31:13 uses the same Hebrew phrase, מָגוֹר מִסָּבִיב (magor missaviv, terror all around). It reveals that the cry in Jeremiah names an encircling threat, not simply fear over possessions lost.
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