Bible Strands
Jeremiah 21:6
I will strike down the residents of this city, both man and beast. They will die in a terrible plague.’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Judah during a siege, immediately following His declaration of personal warfare in the preceding verse.
The words — The text hinges on וְ/הִכֵּיתִ֗י (ve./hi.kei.Ti), literally meaning "and I will strike down," applied directly to the יֽוֹשְׁבֵי֙ (yo.she.Vei), or "inhabitants."
The thread — This judgment against city inhabitants echoes in Isaiah 6:11 regarding ruined cities, Jeremiah 32:24 regarding siege and plague, and Jeremiah 12:3 regarding the removal of the wicked.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that divine judgment extends indiscriminately to both human and animal life, leaving no neutral ground for those within the besieged city.
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
And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 6:11 Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,
- Jeremiah 12:3 But You know me, O LORD; You see me and test my heart toward You. Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter and set them apart for the day of carnage.
- Jeremiah 32:24 See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!
- Jeremiah 33:12 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: In this desolate place, without man or beast, and in all its cities, there will once more be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.
- Ezekiel 14:13 “Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to cut off from it both man and beast,
- Ezekiel 14:17 Or if I bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through it,’ so that I cut off from it both man and beast,
- Ezekiel 14:19 Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast,
- Ezekiel 14:21 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?
- Hosea 4:3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear.
- Zephaniah 1:3 “I will sweep away man and beast; I will sweep away the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and the idols with their wicked worshipers. I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth,” declares the LORD.