What Does Jeremiah 9:16 Mean in the King James?
I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
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 scattering does not end the sentence: the sword is sent after the people until their end is complete.
THE MEANING
This verse sets before you a severe image of judgment: a people are scattered among unfamiliar nations, yet the violence still pursues them. The sword is sent after them, and the stated end is their consumption; distance does not soften the force of the words.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that scattering guarantees escape: here the sword follows the dispersed people until they are consumed.
THE ROOT
וְשִׁלַּחְתִּי
wəshillaḥtî
GROWS FROM
שלח
š-l-ḥ
Send forth, send away, release.
“send” in this verse is wəshillaḥtî. The same verb can describe letting someone go or dispatching something after them. Here the object is a sword, so the sending becomes pursuit.
ALSO GROWS
shallach: Let go; release or send away.
שַׁלַּח
In Exodus 8:1 the same verb appears in “Let my people go”; here the sent thing is a sword following the scattered people.
Shiloach: Sent; the name of the waters of Shiloah.
שִׁלֹחַ
The name carries the same sending-root, while Jeremiah gives that motion a violent object: a sword sent after them.
וְהֲפִצֹתִים
wəhăp̄îṣōtîm
GROWS FROM
פוץ
p-w-ts
Scatter, disperse.
“scatter” in this verse is wəhăp̄îṣōtîm. The Hebrew seed names dispersal across places. In this verse, scattering is not the final state or a path to safety: the next verb sends the sword after the dispersed people.
ALSO GROWS
wayyāpheṣ: He scattered abroad.
וַיָּפֶץ
Genesis 11:8 uses this form for people scattered across the earth; Jeremiah likewise depicts a people dispersed among nations.
məphîṣîm: Those who scatter.
מְפִיצִים
Zechariah 1:19 uses this root for those scattering Judah, keeping the focus on dispersal as an active force.
כַּלּוֹתִי
kallōtî
GROWS FROM
כלה
k-l-h
Be complete, come to an end; bring to completion.
“consumed” in this verse is kallōtî. The verse’s endpoint is expressed with a root of finishing: the sword follows until the people’s end is complete. The same root can describe finishing work, but here completion names their destruction.
ALSO GROWS
wayekhal: He finished.
וַיְכַל
Genesis 2:2 uses this form when God finishes the work; here the same root marks a devastating completion.
kālāh: Come to an end; be finished.
כָּלָה
This form makes clear the root’s range from reaching completion to reaching an end.
THE PATTERN
Judgment’s violence can pursue a people beyond their dispersal.
And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.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
And the LORD spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let my people go, that they may serve me.Exodus uses the same שָׁלַח (shalach), meaning send or release, in “Let my people go.” Jeremiah uses that sending motion for a sword dispatched after the scattered people, so the root’s force here is pursuit.
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