What Does Jeremiah 50:39 Mean in the King James?
Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
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
When human habitation ends, the place does not become empty: the wild moves in.
THE MEANING
A place can lose its human inhabitants and still be inhabited: wild creatures settle into it. Desolation here is an enduring change in who dwells there, stretching across generations.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A place without people is not necessarily vacant; the land is still inhabited, though by creatures outside human life.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁכְּנוּ
yishkenu
GROWS FROM
שכן
To settle or dwell.
“dwell” in this verse is yishkenu. The creatures do not merely pass through; this root presents them as settling in. The same root appears again in the statement that the place will no longer be settled in, so one kind of dwelling replaces another.
ALSO GROWS
mishkan: Dwelling place or tabernacle.
מִשְׁכָּן
It shows the root can name a place made for dwelling, not only the act of settling.
shakhen: Neighbor; one who lives nearby.
שָׁכֵן
This branch makes dwelling relational: to dwell is also to be a presence beside others.
תֵשֵׁב
teshev
GROWS FROM
ישב
To sit, remain, or dwell.
“inhabited” in this verse is teshev. The verse uses this root both for the creatures who will dwell there and for the human habitation that will cease. The same seed holds settling in and the loss of a settled human presence.
ALSO GROWS
yoshev: One who dwells; an inhabitant.
יֹשֵׁב
It names the presence whose absence the verse describes.
moshav: A dwelling place or seat.
מוֹשָׁב
It makes the link between dwelling and the place where someone settles visible.
שְׂעִירִים
seʿirim
GROWS FROM
שׂער
Hairy or shaggy.
The Hebrew word rendered “owls” is seʿirim, literally “hairy ones,” and is often understood as referring to goatlike beings; the exact creature is uncertain. The root leaves the scene with a shaggy, uncanny wildness that the English bird name does not show.
ALSO GROWS
seʿar: Hair.
שֵׂעָר
It carries the root’s basic image of what is shaggy or hairy.
saʿir: A hairy goat or goatlike creature.
שָׂעִיר
It shows how the root’s image of hairiness can name a wild creature.
THE PATTERN
When human settlement is stripped away, the text depicts the abandoned place becoming a home for wild or unclean creatures.
It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar work.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
It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.Isaiah repeats the same Hebrew pair of dwelling roots: yashav, to sit or dwell, and shakan, to settle or dwell. The shared wording makes Jeremiah’s desolation part of a recurring image in which human settlement ends and another kind of habitation takes its place.
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