What Does Jeremiah 52:20 Mean in the King James?
The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was without weight.
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
“Without weight” does not mean weightless: the bronze is named in exact forms, but its total goes unweighed.
THE MEANING
The verse names two pillars, one sea, and twelve bulls, yet leaves the bronze’s total weight unreckoned. What is present can be counted without being fully measured.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that what has no stated weight is absent: the bronze is present in named forms, while its combined measure remains unrecorded.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁקָל
mishqal
GROWS FROM
שקל
sh-q-l
to weigh or assess by weight
The word for weight comes from the action of weighing. Here, the bronze is not weightless; its weight is left unreckoned, a distinction the parallel account makes explicit.
ALSO GROWS
shaqal: to weigh
שָׁקַל
The verb names the action behind the noun: weighing is what the inventory does not do.
sheqel: a shekel, a unit of weight
שֶׁקֶל
The shekel turns weighing into a measure; this verse leaves the bronze without that measure.
THE PATTERN
A precise account can name what is present while admitting that its total exceeds measurement or record.
And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out.Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.THE THREAD
And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many: neither was the weight of the brass found out.This parallel says the vessels are left unweighed because they are exceeding many, clarifying the phrase in Jeremiah. “Without weight” describes an unmeasured total, not weightless bronze.
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