What Does Luke 21:20 Mean?
And when you see Jerusalem encircled by armies, then know that its emptying has drawn near.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.THE KEY
The city named for wholeness is ringed by armies, and the ring is already the sign that desolation is near.
THE MEANING
When you see Jerusalem enclosed by armies, you recognize the approach of its desolation. The name carries the language of wholeness, while the verse names a city threatened with being emptied. The warning appears while the ring is visible and the ruin is still near rather than complete.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that ruin starts only when a city lies empty: the enclosing armies are already the sign that desolation is near.
THE ROOT
ἐρήμωσις
erēmōsis
GROWS FROM
ἐρημ-
The Greek stem ἐρημ- (erēm-) carries the sense of deserted, solitary, or uninhabited.
“emptying” in this verse is erēmōsis. English can make desolation sound abstract, but ἐρήμωσις (erēmōsis, desolation) belongs to the same Greek word family as ἔρημος (erēmos, wilderness or desert). The threatened end-state is a city made empty and abandoned, not merely an army nearby.
ALSO GROWS
erēmos: Wilderness, desert; a deserted or uninhabited place.
ἔρημος
This branch reveals that desolation shares its word family with the wilderness: the city is threatened with abandonment.
erēmoō: To make desolate, lay waste, or leave deserted.
ἐρημόω
This verb names the action whose resulting condition is called desolation: a place becomes empty and abandoned.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
The root שׁלם (sh-l-m) carries the sense of wholeness, completeness, or well-being.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name Yerushalayim carries the language of the shalom-family’s wholeness. The verse places that name beside imminent desolation: the city’s wholeness is under assault by an enclosing force.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
The name’s connection to this word places the threat of desolation against the city’s language of wholeness.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch gives the root’s sense of wholeness in a direct form, sharpening what the approaching desolation threatens.
κυκλουμένην
kykloumenēn
GROWS FROM
κυκλ-
The Greek stem κυκλ- (kykl-) carries the sense of circling or going around.
“encircled” in this verse is kykloumenēn. The verse pictures Jerusalem as enclosed by a ring. Luke 19:43 uses this same circle-family for enemies who hem the city in on every side, making the encirclement itself a visible signal before the desolation is complete.
ALSO GROWS
kyklos: A circle or ring.
κύκλος
This is the concrete image beneath the verb: armies form a ring around the city.
perikyklóō: To encircle or surround.
περικυκλόω
This compound uses the same circle-family to describe the enemies closing around Jerusalem in Luke 19:43.
THE PATTERN
An encircling siege makes approaching desolation visible before a city is emptied.
For days will come upon you, when your enemies will drive stakes around you, and surround you, and press you in on every side.Set a siege against it, and build a ramp against it, and pour out a mound against it, and pitch camps against it, and set battering rams against it all around.THE THREAD
For days will come upon you, when your enemies will drive stakes around you, and surround you, and press you in on every side.The same Greek circle-family returns as Jerusalem’s enemies close the city in on every side. This verse makes the ring of siege concrete, while Luke 21:20 names the desolation drawing near.
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