What Does Jeremiah 7:20 Mean in the King James?
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
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 gives divine fury the form of poured heat, a fire that reaches every living part of the place and cannot be quenched.
THE MEANING
Here, the LORD’s anger reaches the whole place: people, animals, trees, and the fruit-bearing ground. The fire keeps burning and cannot be quenched, extending the devastation across the living world named in the verse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the idea that divine fury concerns human beings alone: its reach explicitly includes beasts, trees, and the ground’s fruit.
THE ROOT
חֵמָה
ḥēmāh
GROWS FROM
ח־מ־ם
To be hot; heat.
The word translated “fury” carries the sense of heat. Joined with the image of fire that cannot be quenched, it makes the anger here something poured out with force and lasting consequence.
ALSO GROWS
ḥam: Hot, warm.
חָם
This branch carries the same root’s physical heat, giving “fury” a bodily quality in the verse.
ḥom: Heat.
חֹם
The shared root keeps the verse’s fury and its unquenched fire within one field of heat.
אֲדָמָה
adamah
GROWS FROM
א־ד־ם
Ground, soil; the root family links the ground with the human.
The verse names הָאָדָם (ha’adam, the human) and פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה (peri ha’adamah, the fruit of the ground), echoing the same root letters. The human and the soil that bears its food are joined in the verse’s account of what the fire reaches.
ALSO GROWS
adam: Human, person.
אָדָם
The shared root links the people named in the verse with the ground named beside them.
adom: Red.
אָדֹם
This branch carries the root family’s color association, a resonance with the earth named as adamah.
THE PATTERN
When judgment falls on a place, its reach includes the land and other life alongside human beings.
And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.THE THREAD
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.Both verses use חֵמָה (ḥēmāh, heat or fury). Jeremiah 4:4 makes the heat explicit as fire no one can quench; Jeremiah 7:20 shows that fire reaching people, animals, trees, and the ground’s fruit.
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