What Does Jeremiah 50:38 Mean in the King James?
A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.
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 verse links dried waters with people raving over idols, exposing devotion consumed by what human hands carve while the life-giving source runs dry.
THE MEANING
The waters are drying in the land of carved images, and the people are raving over their idols. The verse holds that depletion and fixation together: a made object commands fervor while the waters that sustain the land recede.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that a human-made object can sustain the life it cannot give.
THE ROOT
יִתְהֹלָלוּ
yitholelu
GROWS FROM
הלל
halal
Praise or boast; in this form, rave or act wildly.
The word translated “mad” belongs to the same root family as praise and boasting. The verse reveals how fervor can become a kind of raving when it is fixed on idols.
ALSO GROWS
halal: praise, boast
הָלַל
The same root family names praise; here its force turns toward raving over idols.
tehillah: praise, song of praise
תְּהִלָּה
This related word shows the root naming voiced praise, while Jeremiah uses its form for frenzy directed at idols.
פְּסִלִים
pesilim
GROWS FROM
פסל
pasal
Hew, carve, cut into form.
“Graven images” carries the act of carving within the word: these are forms shaped by human hands. Set beside the drying waters, the word sharpens the contrast between what is fixed in a made form and what sustains life.
ALSO GROWS
pasal: hew, carve
פָּסַל
This verb names the act that gives an image its fixed shape.
pesel: carved image, idol
פֶּסֶל
This singular noun grows from the same root, keeping the act of carving inside the name for the image.
THE PATTERN
When devotion settles on human-made forms, the life-giving source is shut off and people become shaped by what they trust.
And then the LORD’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.THE THREAD
Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.Jeremiah’s “mad” (יִתְהֹלָלוּ, yitholelu) comes from הלל (halal), the same root behind “praise” in this psalm. The shared root links fervor and praise, while the surrounding verses show how much depends on where that praise is directed.
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