What Does Jeremiah 51:56 Mean in the King James?
Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite.
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 verse uses two words for repayment to show that Babylon’s violence does not escape its full account.
THE MEANING
When destruction appears to have the last word, this verse holds the account open: the devastator is overtaken, its fighters seized, and its bows broken. The LORD answers the violence with requital; what is done is met with its return.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that overwhelming power can devastate without being answerable is undone here.
THE ROOT
יְשַׁלֵּם
yeshallēm
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be complete or whole; to make good or pay what is due.
“requite” in this verse is yeshallēm. The Hebrew intensifies the line with יְשַׁלֵּם (yeshallēm), carrying the sense of paying or making good in full. Its root also gives שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), holding completeness and settled repayment together without softening the violence of Babylon’s reckoning.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: A state made whole.
שָׁלוֹם
It shares the root’s sense of something brought to completion, giving depth to the idea of an account fully settled.
shillem: To render what is due.
שִׁלֵּם
This verbal branch makes the verse’s requital concrete: what is owed is paid.
גְּמֻלוֹת
gemulōt
GROWS FROM
גמל
g-m-l
To deal with someone or render what is due.
“recompences” in this verse is gemulōt. גְּמֻלוֹת (gemulōt) names the returns due for what has been done. Beside יְשַׁלֵּם (yeshallēm), it doubles the language of repayment: this is an account discharged, not an unexplained blow.
ALSO GROWS
gamal: To act toward someone or render a due response.
גָּמַל
It shows the active side of recompense: what is done receives an answering act.
gemul: An action and its return.
גְּמוּל
It makes visible the link between what Babylon has done and what comes back upon it.
THE PATTERN
What a person or power sends into the world returns in its due measure.
Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel.For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.The Psalm’s תְשַׁלֵּם (teshallem, “you repay”) comes from the same root שׁלם (sh-l-m, “complete, pay”) as Jeremiah’s “requite.” The Psalm places that completed accounting beside חֶסֶד (chesed, “faithful love”), holding repayment within the character of God.
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