What Does Jeremiah 6:21 Mean in the King James?
Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.
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 Hebrew word for the stumblingblocks and the word for falling share one root: the obstacle and the collapse belong to one connected movement.
THE MEANING
The LORD places stumblingblocks before this people, and fathers and sons fall over them together; neighbor and friend perish too. The verse holds the danger as communal, reaching through family and friendship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that family ties and friendship guarantee safety dissolves here: fathers and sons, neighbor and friend, all face the same collapse.
THE ROOT
מִכְשֹׁלִים
miksholîm
GROWS FROM
כשל
To stumble, totter, or fail.
“stumblingblocks / shall fall” in this verse is miksholîm. “Stumblingblocks” and “shall fall” are not separate ideas in Hebrew: both grow from כשל, the root for stumbling and failure. The sound of the obstacle echoes in the people’s fall, joining what is placed before them to what happens when they meet it.
ALSO GROWS
vekhāshĕlû: And they shall stumble or fall.
וְכָשְׁלוּ
This verb appears in the verse itself, sharing its root with the stumblingblocks and making the link between obstacle and collapse explicit.
kishshālôn: A stumbling, failure, or fall.
כִּשָּׁלוֹן
Proverbs 16:18 uses this noun for a fall, showing another branch of the same root where collapse follows a condition that comes before it.
THE PATTERN
A stumbling point reveals itself in the fall it produces, and its reach can extend from one person to an entire people.
And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.THE THREAD
And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.Jeremiah’s “stumblingblocks” and Isaiah’s “stone of stumbling” both grow from כשל (kāshal), meaning to stumble or fail. Isaiah also names the consequence as a snare reaching both houses of Israel and Jerusalem, opening Jeremiah’s shared fall into a wider pattern.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us