Bible Strands
Jeremiah 21:4
this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will turn against you the weapons of war in your hands, with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall, and I will assemble their forces in the center of this city.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Jeremiah to King Zedekiah during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. The declaration responds to the king’s request for divine intervention in a moment of military crisis.
The words — מֵסֵב֮ (me.Sev) literally means “I am about to turn round,” describing God’s action of redirecting the very weapons the defenders hold against the besiegers.
The thread — This pattern of God assembling or removing protective barriers for judgment runs through Isaiah 5:5, where He strips a vineyard’s hedge, and Isaiah 13:4, where He gathers nations for conflict. Jeremiah 32:5 directly parallels this by recording God’s declaration that He will hand Zedekiah over to the Babylonians.
Why it lands — The text states that God will turn the defenders’ weapons against them and concentrate the enemy forces inside Jerusalem. It requires the reader to abandon reliance on physical defense and acknowledge that military outcomes are governed by divine command.
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
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 5:5 Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.
- Isaiah 13:4 Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war.
- Jeremiah 32:5 He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him, declares the LORD. If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.’”
- Jeremiah 33:5 The Chaldeans are coming to fight and to fill those places with the corpses of the men I will strike down in My anger and in My wrath. I have hidden My face from this city because of all its wickedness.
- Jeremiah 37:8 Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down.
- Jeremiah 38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you indeed surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned down, and you and your household will survive.
- Zechariah 14:2 For I will gather all the nations for battle against Jerusalem, and the city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.
- Jeremiah 38:2 “This is what the LORD says: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war, and he will live.
- Jeremiah 39:3 Then all the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-sarsekim the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.
- Lamentations 2:5 The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.