What Does Jeremiah 5:16 Mean in the King James?

Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.

Jeremiah 5:16 · 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 weapon is not merely capable of killing: its very container is pictured as an open grave.

THE MEANING

The danger here is already prepared and exposed: the quiver is like an open grave, holding death ready to travel outward. The men’s strength makes that death-bearing readiness formidable.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It dissolves the belief that danger begins only when an arrow is released: the grave is already open in the weapon’s readiness.

THE ROOT

קֶבֶר

qeber

GROWS FROM

קבר

To bury, to place in a grave.

English can make “sepulchre” feel like a static place, while its Hebrew root keeps it connected to the act of burial. Calling the quiver an open grave binds the weapon’s readiness to burial before the arrow is even released.

ALSO GROWS

qābar: To bury

קָבַר

The verb names the act the grave is made for, joining the quiver’s image to death’s consequence.

qevurah: Burial

קְבוּרָה

This branch makes the burial meaning explicit inside the same word family.

פָּתוּחַ

pātuach

GROWS FROM

פתח

To open, make an opening.

The Hebrew root connects “open” with the act of opening and with an entrance. The grave is not sealed or distant in this image: its opening makes death’s presence immediate and exposed.

ALSO GROWS

pātaḥ: To open

פָּתַח

The verb evokes the act that leaves the grave exposed.

petaḥ: Opening, entrance

פֶּתַח

This branch brings out the passage-like quality of the open grave.

גִּבּוֹרִים

gibborim

GROWS FROM

גבר

To be strong, prevail.

“mighty men” in this verse is gibborim. The word belongs to a root of strength and prevailing. Beside the open grave, that strength makes the death-bearing readiness more formidable.

ALSO GROWS

gibbor: Mighty one, warrior

גִּבּוֹר

This singular form names the kind of strength the verse assigns to the men.

gābar: To be strong, prevail

גָּבַר

The verb gives “mighty” its sense of force that prevails.

THE PATTERN

What is readied within can become a passage through which death comes out.

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

Psalm 5:9 · KJVThe open grave appears as a throat, making speech itself a passage through which harm emerges.

Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.

Jeremiah 9:8 · KJVThe tongue becomes an arrow, showing how a concealed intent can be released as a weapon.

Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

Romans 3:13 · KJVThe open-grave image joins the throat and deceitful speech, carrying the same death-bearing pattern into another passage.

THE THREAD

For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.

Psalm 5:9 · KJV

Both verses use the Hebrew image ⁨קֶבֶר פָּתוּחַ⁩ (qeber patuach), “an open grave.” In the psalm the opening is a throat; here it is a quiver, so the image connects death carried out through speech with death carried by a weapon.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us