What Does Jeremiah 51:47 Mean in the King James?
Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
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
God’s “judgment” is a visitation: the carved images Babylon treats as fixed are brought directly under divine attention.
THE MEANING
God’s attention falls directly on the objects Babylon has carved and trusted: the whole land is put to shame, and its slain fall within it. The violence reaches the center of the order that holds those images.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a crafted power can stand beyond reckoning is undone: here the images themselves are under judgment, and the land that holds them is shamed.
THE ROOT
וּפָקַדְתִּי
ûpāqadtî
GROWS FROM
פקד
Attend to, visit, or take account of.
“will do judgment upon” in this verse is ûpāqadtî. In this verb, judgment is carried as divine attendance: God comes to reckon with the images themselves. The root also connects visitation with oversight and appointment, so the objects are singled out for direct account; the land’s shame and the slain’s fall follow.
ALSO GROWS
pāqîd: An appointed officer or overseer.
פָּקִיד
The same root can describe one assigned to attend to a charge; here God attends directly to the images Babylon has set in place.
pequddāh: An appointment, charge, oversight, or visitation.
פְּקֻדָּה
This noun carries the sense of what is assigned or visited under oversight, illuminating the direct reckoning expressed in the verse.
פְּסִילֵי
pəsîlê
GROWS FROM
פסל
Cut, hew, or carve.
“graven images” in this verse is pəsîlê. The noun for a carved image grows from the verb for carving, binding the object to the act that shaped it. What Babylon has made and set in place becomes the very thing visited in judgment.
ALSO GROWS
pāsal: To carve or hew.
פָּסַל
This verb names the making that lies inside the “graven” image: the object has been shaped by human hands.
pésel: A carved image or idol.
פֶּסֶל
This noun names the shaped result; Jeremiah’s phrase makes those crafted objects the direct focus of judgment.
THE PATTERN
What a people shapes into an object of power cannot shield its makers or their order from exposure and collapse.
Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.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
Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt:Jeremiah’s וּפָקַדְתִּי (ûpāqadtî, “I will attend to” or “visit upon”) and Exodus’s פָּקֹד פָּקַדְתִּי (pāqōd pāqadtî, “I have surely visited”) share the root פקד (paqad, “attend to” or “visit”). In Exodus, visitation brings notice of oppression; here the same verb turns toward Babylon’s carved images, making judgment an act of direct attention.
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