What Does Jeremiah 51:25 Mean in the King James?
Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
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 same Hebrew word names the destroying mountain and its destruction of the earth, so the force that ruins everything is itself brought to ruin.
THE MEANING
A force that devastates everything can still appear mountain-high, yet the LORD’s hand reaches it, rolls it from its rocks, and leaves it burned. Its scale is real, but it is not beyond being brought down.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a destructive force becomes untouchable once it reaches mountain height and spreads across the earth; here, even that force remains within the LORD’s reach.
THE ROOT
הַמַּשְׁחִית
hammashchit
GROWS FROM
שחת
shachat
To ruin, destroy, or corrupt.
The same Hebrew form describes the mountain as destroying and says it destroys the whole earth. Its root also carries the sense of corruption: devastation and corruption belong to one word-family, and the repeated word makes the mountain’s own ruin echo its ruin of the earth.
ALSO GROWS
shachat: To ruin, destroy, or spoil.
שָׁחַת
This verb shows the action beneath the mountain’s identity as a destroyer.
nishchatah: Was ruined or became corrupt.
נִשְׁחָתָה
This form describes the earth as corrupt in Genesis 6:11, joining corruption to the destruction named here.
וְגִלְגַּלְתִּיךָ
wegilgaltekha
GROWS FROM
גלל
galal
To roll or roll away.
“roll” in this verse is wegilgaltekha. This root’s word-family includes גַּלְגַּל, the word for a wheel. The mountain is not merely struck; it is set in motion, rolled down from the rocks that give it height.
ALSO GROWS
galal: To roll or roll away.
גָּלַל
This verb is the root motion in the LORD’s act of bringing the mountain down.
galgal: Wheel.
גַּלְגַּל
The wheel shares the root’s rolling motion, illuminating the mountain’s forced descent.
THE PATTERN
Destructive power may spread across the earth, but its apparent height does not shield it from being brought down.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.THE THREAD
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.The same Hebrew root describes the earth as “corrupt” here, joining corruption and destruction within one word-family. That link opens the mountain’s image further: its ruin answers the force that has corrupted the earth.
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