Bible Strands
Jeremiah 18:7
At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah to the house of Israel immediately after the potter-and-clay illustration. This declaration functions as the first half of a two-part warning, establishing the premise that divine judgment is announced before it is executed.
The words — The verse opens with רֶ֣גַע (Re.ga'), literally "a moment," marking the immediacy of the prophetic announcement. It continues with לִ/נְת֥וֹשׁ (li/n.To.osh), "to pluck up," and לִ/נְת֖וֹץ (li/n.Totz), "to pull down," which describe the active dismantling of political structures.
The thread — The authority to uproot and tear down nations appears in Jeremiah 1:10, where the LORD commissions Jeremiah over kingdoms. The same destructive language reappears in Jeremiah 12:14 against Israel's neighbors and in Jeremiah 45:4 regarding the demolition of what God previously built.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize that announced judgment is not final until the warned party responds. It demands an honest assessment of whether one's actions will trigger the announced destruction or prompt the conditional reversal described in the surrounding verses.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 1:10 See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”
- Jeremiah 12:14 This is what the LORD says: “As for all My evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to My people Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them.
- Jeremiah 45:4 Thus Jeremiah was to say to Baruch: “This is what the LORD says: Throughout the land I will demolish what I have built and uproot what I have planted.
- Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
- Amos 9:8 Surely the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the LORD.
- Jonah 3:4 On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”