What Does Jeremiah 5:6 Mean in the King James?
Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased.
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 leopard’s vigilance shares its Hebrew root with the LORD’s watching over his word, setting predatory watch beside divine watch.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks of a community where accumulated rebellion and turnings-away leave shared life exposed to predators: a lion strikes from the forest, a wolf ravages at evening, and a leopard watches over the cities. Whoever goes out is torn apart; the violence is stated plainly, with no safe exit promised.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that city walls keep danger outside is undone: the leopard watches over the cities themselves.
THE ROOT
שֹׁקֵד
shoqed
GROWS FROM
שקד
To stay awake, be watchful, or keep watch.
The leopard is described as keeping watch over the cities, making danger an active, alert presence. Jeremiah uses this same root in a wordplay between the almond tree and the LORD watching over his word, so the root links two very different kinds of vigilance.
ALSO GROWS
shaqad: To watch or remain awake.
שָׁקַד
This is the verb beneath the leopard’s watchful posture.
shaqed: Almond tree.
שָׁקֵד
In Jeremiah 1, its name sounds like “watching,” linking the early-blooming tree to the LORD’s vigilance.
מְשֻׁבוֹתֵיהֶם
meshuboteihem
GROWS FROM
שׁוב
To turn, return, or turn back.
“Backslidings” carries the root of turning or returning: the word holds both the movement away from a path and the possibility of turning back. English makes the departure sound like a fixed condition, while Hebrew keeps the motion audible.
ALSO GROWS
shuvu: Turn back; return.
שׁוּבוּ
Jeremiah 3:22 uses this form in the appeal “Return, ye backsliding children,” bringing the root’s two directions together.
meshubah: Turning away; backsliding.
מְשׁוּבָה
This noun names the repeated turning-away that Jeremiah 5:6 says has increased.
פִּשְׁעֵיהֶם
pish'eihem
GROWS FROM
פשע
To rebel, revolt, or break away.
The root gives “transgressions” the force of rebellion and breaking away, beyond the sense of separate rule violations. Beside the turnings-away in the same verse, it names rupture as a repeated pattern.
ALSO GROWS
pashaʿ: To rebel or break away.
פָּשַׁע
The verb carries the force of the rebellion named here as having multiplied.
posheaʿ: One who rebels; a rebel.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
This related form makes the root’s emphasis on breaking away visible in a person, not only in an abstract act.
THE PATTERN
When danger takes hold of shared life, Scripture gives it the shape of a predator that watches, pursues, or devours.
The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.THE THREAD
Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.The Hebrew word rendered “hasten” here comes from the same root as the leopard’s “watch” in Jeremiah 5:6. One verse pictures a predator watching over cities; the other uses the almond-tree wordplay to picture the LORD keeping watch over his word until it is done.
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