What Does Jeremiah 50:42 Mean in the King James?
They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.
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 word for “mercy” belongs to the same word-family as “womb,” so the army’s terror includes its refusal of protective compassion.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you with a force already armed and arranged for battle, roaring like the sea and refusing compassion. The violence is directed at a whole people, and the text names that terror without softening it.
THE ROOT
יְרַחֲמוּ
yeraḥămû
GROWS FROM
רחם
r-ḥ-m
To have compassion or show mercy.
“shew mercy” in this verse is yeraḥămû. The verse says the attackers will not show רָחַם (rāḥam, compassion). The related word רֶחֶם (reḥem, womb) gives compassion a bodily image of protective tenderness, making their refusal feel especially stark.
ALSO GROWS
raḥămîm: Compassion, mercies
רַחֲמִים
This noun names the compassion the armed force refuses.
reḥem: Womb
רֶחֶם
This related word gives compassion a bodily resonance of shelter and protection.
עָרוּךְ
ʿārûḵ
GROWS FROM
ערך
ʿ-r-kh
To arrange or set in order.
“put in array” in this verse is ʿārûḵ. The threat is composed, not shapeless: each rider is arranged for battle. The root reveals coordination behind the violence, with the force deliberately set in order.
ALSO GROWS
ʿārakh: To arrange, set in order
עָרַךְ
This verb carries the action behind the army’s prepared formation.
maʿărāḵāh: An array or battle formation
מַעֲרָכָה
This related noun makes the organized structure of the threat visible.
THE PATTERN
The refusal of compassion appears both in violence against the vulnerable and as a settled human disposition.
Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:THE THREAD
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.Both verses use the root רחם (rāḥam, to show compassion): Jeremiah names its refusal, while the psalm describes the LORD’s compassion like a father’s toward children. The shared root brings the withheld tenderness into view.
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