Jeremiah 6:21

Bible in Basic English (1941)

For this reason the Lord has said, See, I will put stones in the way of this people: and the fathers and the sons together will go falling over them; the neighbour and his friend will come to destruction.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

לָכֵ֗ן כֹּ֚ה אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה הִנְנִ֥י נֹתֵ֛ן אֶל־הָעָ֥ם הַזֶּ֖ה מִכְשֹׁלִ֑ים וְכָ֣שְׁלוּ בָ֠ם אָב֨וֹת וּבָנִ֥ים יַחְדָּ֛ו שָׁכֵ֥ן וְרֵע֖וֹ *יאבדו **וְאָבָֽדוּ׃ פ

Transliteration

Therefore thus ʾāmar YHWH behold-me nōtēn to-the-ʿām the-this miḵšōlîm and-they-shall-ḵāšəlû on-them ʾābôt and-bānîm together šāḵēn and-his-rēʿô and-they-shall-wəʾābādû.

Grammar Details

• *ʾāmar*: qal perfect, 3rd masculine singular - he said
• *YHWH*: proper noun - LORD/Yahweh
• *nōtēn*: qal participle, masculine singular - giving
• *ʿām*: noun, masculine singular - people
• *miḵšōlîm*: noun, masculine plural - stumbling blocks
• *ḵāšəlû*: qal perfect with waw consecutive, 3rd masculine plural - they will stumble
• *ʾābôt*: noun, masculine plural - fathers
• *bānîm*: noun, masculine plural - sons
• *šāḵēn*: qal participle, masculine singular - neighbor/one who dwells
• *rēʿô*: noun, masculine singular + 3rd masculine singular suffix - his friend
• *wəʾābādû*: qal perfect with waw consecutive, 3rd masculine plural - they will perish

Word Meanings

• *miḵšōlîm*: stumbling blocks/obstacles
• *ḵāšəlû*: they will stumble/stagger/fall
• *šāḵēn*: neighbor/one who dwells nearby
• *wəʾābādû*: they will perish/be destroyed/be lost

Referenced Verses

• Isa 8:14 : 14 And he will be for a holy place: but for a stone of falling and a rock of trouble to the two houses of Israel, and to the men of Jerusalem, for a net in which they may be taken.
• Jer 13:16 : 16 Give glory to the Lord your God, before he makes it dark, and before your feet are slipping on the dark mountains, and, while you are looking for a light, he makes it into deep dark, into black night.
• Ezek 3:20 : 20 Again, when an upright man, turning away from his righteousness, does evil, and I put a cause of falling in his way, death will overtake him: because you have given him no word of his danger, death will overtake him in his evil-doing, and there will be no memory of the upright acts which he has done; but I will make you responsible for his blood.
• Isa 9:14-17 : 14 For this cause the Lord took away from Israel head and tail, high and low, in one day. 15 The man who is honoured and responsible is the head, and the prophet who gives false teaching is the tail. 16 For the guides of this people are the cause of their wandering from the right way, and those who are guided by them come to destruction. 17 For this cause the Lord will have no pleasure in their young men, and no pity on their widows and the children without fathers: for they are all haters of God and evil-doers, and foolish words come from every mouth. For all this his wrath is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
• Isa 24:2-3 : 2 And it will be the same for the people as for the priest; for the servant as for his master; and for the woman-servant as for her owner; the same for the one offering goods for a price as for him who takes them; the same for him who gives money at interest and for him who takes it; the same for him who lets others have the use of his property as for those who make use of it. 3 The earth will be completely waste and without men; for this is the word of the Lord.
• Jer 9:21-22 : 21 For death has come up into our windows, forcing its way into our great houses; cutting off the children in the streets and the young men in the wide places. 22 The bodies of men will be falling like waste on the open fields, and like grain dropped by the grain-cutter, and no one will take them up.
• Jer 15:2-9 : 2 And it will be, when they say to you, Where are we to go? then you are to say to them, The Lord has said, Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are to be in need of food, to need of food; and such as are to be taken away prisoners, to be taken away. 3 And I will put over them four divisions, says the Lord: the sword causing death, dogs pulling the dead bodies about, and the birds of heaven, and the beasts of the earth to take their bodies for food and put an end to them. 4 And I will make them a cause of fear to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and what he did in Jerusalem. 5 For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? and who will have sorrow for you? or who will go out of his way to see how you are? 6 You have given me up, says the Lord, you have gone back: so my hand is stretched out against you for your destruction; I am tired of changing my purpose. 7 And I have sent a cleaning wind on them in the public places of the land; I have taken their children from them; I have given my people to destruction; they have not been turned from their ways. 8 I have let their widows be increased in number more than the sand of the seas: I have sent against them, against the mother and the young men, one who makes waste in the heat of the day, causing pain and fears to come on her suddenly. 9 The mother of seven is without strength; her spirit is gone from her, her sun has gone down while it is still day: she has been shamed and overcome: and the rest of them I will give up to the sword before their haters, says the Lord.
• Jer 16:3-9 : 3 For this is what the Lord has said about the sons and daughters who come to birth in this place, and about their mothers who have given them birth, and about their fathers who have given life to them in this land: 4 Death from evil diseases will overtake them; there will be no weeping for them and their bodies will not be put to rest; they will be like waste on the face of the earth: the sword and need of food will put an end to them; their dead bodies will be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 5 For this is what the Lord has said: Do not go into the house of sorrow, do not go to make weeping or songs of grief for them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, even mercy and pity. 6 Death will overtake great as well as small in the land: their bodies will not be put in a resting-place, and no one will be weeping for them or wounding themselves or cutting off their hair for them: 7 No one will make a feast for them in sorrow, to give them comfort for the dead, or put to their lips the cup of comfort on account of their father or their mother. 8 And you are not to go into the house of feasting, or be seated with them to take food or drink. 9 For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, See, before your eyes and in your days I will put an end in this place to the laughing voices and the voice of joy; to the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride.
• Jer 18:21 : 21 For this cause, let their children be without food, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives be without children and become widows; let their men be overtaken by death, and their young men be put to the sword in the fight.
• Jer 19:7-9 : 7 I will make the purpose of Judah and Jerusalem come to nothing in this place; I will have them put to the sword by their haters, and by the hands of those who have designs on their life; and their dead bodies I will give to be food for the birds of heaven and the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this town a thing of wonder and a cause of surprise; everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder and make sounds of surprise, because of all its troubles. 9 I will make them take the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters for food, they will be making a meal of one another, because of their bitter need and the cruel grip of their haters and those who have made designs against their life.
• Jer 21:7 : 7 And after that, says the Lord, I will give up Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his servants and his people, even those in the town who have not come to their end from the disease and the sword and from need of food, into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of their haters, and into the hands of those desiring their death: he will put them to the sword; he will not let anyone get away, he will have no pity or mercy.
• Lam 2:20-22 : 20 Look! O Lord, see to whom you have done this! Are the women to take as their food the fruit of their bodies, the children who are folded in their arms? are the priest and the prophet to be put to death in the holy place of the Lord? 21 The young men and the old are stretched on the earth in the streets; my virgins and my young men have been put to the sword: you have sent death on them in the day of your wrath, causing death without pity. 22 As in the day of a holy meeting you have made fears come round me on every side, and no one got away or was kept safe in the day of the Lord's wrath: those who were folded in my arms, whom I took care of, have been sent to their destruction by my hater.
• Ezek 5:10 : 10 For this cause fathers will take their sons for food among you, and sons will make a meal of their fathers; and I will be judge among you, and all the rest of you I will send away to every wind.
• Ezek 9:5-7 : 5 And to these he said in my hearing, Go through the town after him using your axes: do not let your eyes have mercy, and have no pity: 6 Give up to destruction old men and young men and virgins, little children and women: but do not come near any man who has the mark on him: and make a start at my holy place. So they made a start with the old men who were before the house. 7 And he said to them, Make the house unclean, make the open places full of dead: go forward and send destruction on the town.
• Rom 9:33 : 33 As it is said, See, I am putting in Zion a stone causing a fall, and a rock in the way: but he who has faith in him will not be put to shame.
• Rom 11:9 : 9 And David says, Let their table be made a net for taking them, and a stone in their way, and a punishment:
• 1 Pet 2:8 : 8 And, A stone of falling, a rock of trouble; the word is the cause of their fall, because they go against it, and this was the purpose of God.
• 2 Chr 36:17 : 17 So he sent against them the king of the Chaldaeans, who put their young men to death with the sword in the house of their holy place, and had no pity for any, young man or virgin, old man or white-haired: God gave them all into his hands.