What Does Jeremiah 6:4 Mean in the King James?
Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
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 command translated “prepare” means “set apart,” even as the evening shadows “incline”, war is marked with consecrating language while daylight bends toward its end.
THE MEANING
You hear war commanded against her, then the speakers cry that the day has turned and evening shadows are lengthening. The verse keeps the violence in plain view while the fading light makes the urgency visible.
THE ROOT
קַדְּשׁוּ
qaddeshu
GROWS FROM
קדש
Set apart; consecrate.
The command rendered “prepare” is qaddeshu, “set apart” or “consecrate”; the same root forms words for what is set apart and for the sanctuary. This language does not soften the violence, it shows the solemn, consecrated frame given to the assault.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart.
קָדוֹשׁ
The same root names the state the command places upon the war.
miqdash: Sanctuary.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The root also names a place set apart, revealing the charged language used for the war command.
יִנָּטוּ
yinnāṭû
GROWS FROM
נטה
Stretch out, extend, incline, or turn aside.
“Stretched out” in this verse is yinnāṭû. The shadows are described with a verb of inclination and extension: they visibly lengthen as evening advances. The root makes dusk a movement across the scene, not merely a time of day.
ALSO GROWS
natui: Stretched out or inclined.
נָטוּי
This related form describes the slanting, lengthened state of the evening shadows.
matteh: Staff or rod; also tribe.
מַטֶּה
The extended rod carries the root’s sense of reach, while the verse shows that reach spreading across the evening sky.
פָּנָה
pānāh
GROWS FROM
פנה
Turn, face, or turn aside.
“Goeth away” in this verse is pānāh. The Hebrew says the day has turned, giving its departure a direction: daylight has passed its turning point. Beside shadows that incline and lengthen, the verse presents evening as a change in motion, not just a clock label.
ALSO GROWS
panim: Face or presence.
פָּנִים
The word belongs to the same family of turning and facing, giving the day’s turn a directional sense.
pinnah: Corner or turning point.
פִּנָּה
This branch gives a concrete image of a turn, illuminating the day as it passes toward evening.
THE PATTERN
As daylight turns toward evening, scripture uses shadow and approaching night to make time’s closing edge visible.
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.THE THREAD
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.Jeremiah’s shadows are yinnāṭû, from nāṭāh, “incline” or “stretch”; Psalm 109:23 uses the same root for a shadow as it declines. The shared verb makes the shadow a motion that measures what is passing away, not merely an evening image.
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