What Does Jeremiah 6:12 Mean in the King James?
And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.
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 refuses to call dispossession an accident: the transfer of homes, fields, and wives stands in the same sentence as the LORD’s hand stretched against the inhabitants.
THE MEANING
You meet judgment here as dispossession: homes, fields, and wives are turned over to others while the LORD stretches out his hand against the inhabitants. The sentence holds the loss and its divine cause together without softening either.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a house, land, or family guarantees security; here each is named among what can be taken.
THE ROOT
אֶטֶּה
ʾeṭṭeh
GROWS FROM
נטה
nṭh
To stretch out, extend, bend, or incline.
“stretch out” in this verse is ʾeṭṭeh. This root carries both extension and direction: something reaches or inclines toward a target. The phrase “upon the inhabitants” fixes the direction of the LORD’s hand against them, making the gesture an image of active judgment.
ALSO GROWS
pitch: Spread or extend a tent; pitch it.
וַיֵּט
The same root’s extending action can make a dwelling. Here that reach is directed against the people who dwell in the land.
incline: Turn or incline toward something; as in “Incline my heart” (Psalm 119:36).
הַט
This branch shows the root’s sense of directed movement: the stretched hand in Jeremiah is extended against a named target.
יֹשְׁבֵי
yoshvê
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
To sit, dwell, or remain.
“inhabitants” in this verse is yoshvê. The Hebrew calls them “those dwelling,” using the root of sitting and settled residence. That word sits beside the transfer of their homes and fields: people who dwell in the land can be made to lose the place where they dwell.
ALSO GROWS
sit: Sit, remain, or dwell.
יָשַׁב
“Inhabitants” carries the root’s basic picture of people settled in a place.
môshāv: A seat, dwelling place, or settlement.
מוֹשָׁב
This branch makes the threatened loss especially concrete: the people dwelling in the land are named alongside houses that pass to others.
THE PATTERN
Judgment becomes concrete through the loss or transfer of a people’s homes, land, and freedom.
Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.THE THREAD
Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.Isaiah uses the same root, נטה (nṭh), for the hand stretched against the people. In Jeremiah, that extending hand stands beside the transfer of homes, fields, and wives, making the reach itself part of the image of judgment.
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