- Name 49 of 70King of Nations
- HebrewMelekh ha-goyim
- In plain wordsThe King who rules over every people on earth
- Where to find itJeremiah 10:7, in a warning against idols
King of nations is the name the prophet Jeremiah gave God in Jeremiah 10:7. It means the King who rules every people on earth, not only the nation of Israel. Jeremiah spoke it in the middle of a warning about idols, and the King James Bible puts it as a question: Who would not fear thee, O King of nations?
A prophet and a homemade god
Jeremiah preached in Jerusalem during the last years before the Babylonian army destroyed the city. Many of his listeners would soon be carried off to Babylon, a city full of grand temples, golden statues and religious parades. It would all look very impressive to a small group of captives. So Jeremiah prepared them ahead of time. He started by telling them not to be scared of the things other nations feared, like strange signs in the sky:
Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Jeremiah 10:2
Heathen in the King James usually just means the other nations, the peoples who did not know Israel's God. Dismayed means badly shaken.
Then Jeremiah walks through how an idol gets made, step by step, and his description is sharp and ironic. A man goes into the forest and cuts down a tree with an axe. A craftsman shapes it. Then:
They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
Jeremiah 10:4-5
Picture it. The god has to be nailed down so it will not tip over. It stands straight but cannot speak. It cannot walk, so people have to carry it from place to place. Why be afraid of something like that?
And right in the middle of that description, Jeremiah turns away from the idols and speaks to the living God instead. His tone changes from warning to worship.
The verse that gives the name
Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
Jeremiah 10:6-7
Think about who Jeremiah was talking to. Judah was a tiny kingdom that had been pushed around by Egypt, Assyria and now Babylon. To most onlookers, the gods of the big empires seemed to be winning. Jeremiah says the exact opposite. He does not call God the King of Israel here. He calls Him the King of the nations, the very nations that were crushing Judah.
Notice the comparison at the end. Babylon was famous for its learning, especially its star watchers and record keepers. Jeremiah says that among all the wise men of all those kingdoms, there is still no one like the LORD.
Melekh ha-goyim in plain words
The Hebrew behind the title is melekh ha-goyim. Melekh means king. Goyim is the plural of goy, a word Strong's dictionary defines as a foreign nation, and so a Gentile. Most of the time in the Old Testament it refers to the peoples outside Israel. The King James translates it nation, heathen and Gentiles. So you could even read the title as "King of the Gentiles." The God of one small nation is the rightful ruler of all the rest.
The little phrase for to thee doth it appertain
is worth a look too. Appertain is an old way of saying belong or be fitting. The Hebrew verb, ya'ah, shows up only in this one verse of the Old Testament. Jeremiah means that fear, in the sense of deep respect and awe, is simply what God is due. It would be strange not to give it.
A verse in the neighbors' language
A few lines later, Jeremiah does something unusual. The whole book of Jeremiah is written in Hebrew, except for one verse. Jeremiah 10:11 is in Aramaic, the common language that people across the Babylonian world used for trade and government. Bible students still discuss why, but the verse itself explains its purpose. It is a short message for God's people to say to their foreign neighbors, in words those neighbors could understand:
Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
Jeremiah 10:11
That fits the title perfectly. A King of nations has a message for the nations.
Other KJV verses about God ruling the nations
Jeremiah is not the only one who says it. The same truth runs through the Psalms and the prophets:
For the kingdom is the LORD's: and he is the governor among the nations.
Psalm 22:28
God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.
Psalm 47:8
Even at Jeremiah's calling, God said I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations
(Jeremiah 1:5). From the beginning, his message was bigger than one country.
What the King of nations means for you
Scroll the news for five minutes and it is easy to feel afraid. Wars, elections, prices, powerful people making choices you cannot control. Jeremiah's listeners felt the same way about Babylon. This name tells you that every president, prime minister and dictator lives under a higher King. No headline is outside His reach.
It also tests what you lean on. Jeremiah's idols had to be decorated, propped up and carried around. Anything you have to hold up to keep your hope alive, whether a party, a celebrity, a bank balance or a reputation, is behaving a lot like that idol. The true God is not carried. He carries you.
And this name stretches your heart past your own neighborhood. If God is King of every nation, then people in countries you have never visited matter to Him as much as you do. That is a reason to treat people from other places with respect and kindness, including people whose beliefs are different from yours.
- Pick one country you know little about, learn three facts about it, and pray for the people who live there.
- When the news makes you anxious, read Jeremiah 10:6 to 7 before you keep scrolling.
- Ask honestly: is there anything in my life I am propping up and calling my security?
King of Nations is name 49 of the 70 in the book. Three verses later, Jeremiah gives God a second royal title about time instead of territory: An Everlasting King. Before this one comes the King of Glory, and the full list is on the names of God in the Bible page.
