What Does Jeremiah 50:30 Mean in the King James?
Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD.
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 Hebrew behind “cut off” carries an image of silence: Babylon’s men fall in the open streets, and its war-making force goes quiet.
THE MEANING
Here, Babylon’s young men fall in the streets, and its fighting men are silenced when the appointed day arrives. The verse holds the violence plainly: the city’s armed strength does not keep its streets from becoming the scene of its collapse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a city’s armed strength can guarantee its safety when judgment reaches it.
THE ROOT
יִדַּמּוּ
yiddammū they will
GROWS FROM
דמם
To be silent, still, or cease.
The Hebrew verb rendered “cut off” carries the sense of falling silent or ceasing. In this verse, that stillness is the violent silencing of the city’s fighting men.
ALSO GROWS
demamah: Stillness or silence.
דְּמָמָה
This related word gives the warriors’ silencing an audible counterpart: what remains is a hush.
vayyidom: He or it fell silent or stood still.
וַיִּדֹּם
This verb form shows the same root moving from active force into stillness.
יִפְּלוּ
yippəlū they will
GROWS FROM
נפל
To fall or be brought down.
The verb names a collapse, not only a change in status. The young men’s fall happens in the streets themselves, where the city’s strength is exposed.
ALSO GROWS
hippīl: To cause to fall or bring down.
הִפִּיל
This causative form shows the root can describe a force bringing someone down.
mappālāh: Downfall or overthrow.
מַפָּלָה
This noun carries the same root into the image of a larger collapse.
בִּרְחֹבֹתֶיהָ
birchovoteha in her
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad or spacious.
The word for the streets comes from a root of breadth. Here, those broad public spaces mark exposure: the collapse unfolds where it can be seen.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: Wide or broad.
רָחָב
This adjective makes the spatial sense inside the word for streets visible.
merchav: A broad or spacious place.
מֶרְחָב
This related noun echoes the open setting where the city’s fighters fall.
THE PATTERN
A city’s public power cannot shield it when judgment reaches the point of collapse.
Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land: for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.THE THREAD
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.Jeremiah’s יִפְּלוּ (yippəlū, “they will fall”) and the psalm’s יִפּוֹל (yippol, “he will fall”) share נפל (n-p-l; naphal), meaning “to fall.” The shared root opens a sharp distinction: here, fighters fall as a city’s power collapses; in the psalm, the fallen person is upheld.
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