What Does Jeremiah 51:22 Mean in the King James?
With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;
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 verb for “break in pieces” also carries the sense of scattering, joining the blow to the dispersal that follows.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks through an instrument of destruction, with no listed human distinction left outside its reach. Men and women, old and young, young men and maidens all fall within the scope of the shattering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that violence respects age or sex as boundaries: the verse names each distinction only to show that it offers no protection.
THE ROOT
אֲנַפֵּץ
ʾănappēṣ
GROWS FROM
נפץ
n-p-ts
To shatter or dash in pieces; in some forms, to scatter or spread out.
“break in pieces” in this verse is ʾănappēṣ. The English phrase can sound like a single impact, but נפץ holds shattering and scattering within the same root. Here the repeated verb and the widening list make the violence comprehensive: no age or sex stands beyond its reach.
ALSO GROWS
overspread: Was spread across the earth.
נָפְצָה
In Genesis 9:19, this form of the root describes spreading outward, revealing the dispersal held alongside the sense of shattering.
dasheth: Dashes or shatters.
וְנִפֵּץ
Psalm 137:9 uses the same root for the violent image of little ones dashed against stones, preserving the root’s blunt physical force.
THE PATTERN
Scripture exposes violence’s reach by naming the people it strikes across age and sex.
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand.Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.THE THREAD
These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.The Hebrew verb behind “overspread” comes from the same root as “break in pieces” here. Its range joins shattering with scattering: what is broken apart can also be dispersed.
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