What Does 1 Peter 5:7 Mean?
throwing all your divided care upon him, for you matter to him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.THE KEY
The verse names two different kinds of care: your μέριμνα (merimna, concern) is cast onto the one to whom you matter.
THE MEANING
Every concern pressing on you can be thrown onto him because you matter to him. The verse does not dismiss the concern; it shows it being placed on someone whose care for you is already present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that you must carry every concern alone dissolves here: the one receiving it already cares for you.
THE ROOT
μέριμνα
merimna
GROWS FROM
μερίζω
merizō
Traditionally connected with dividing or apportioning; μέριμνα (merimna) means care, anxiety, or concern.
“divided care” in this verse is merimna. English uses “care” for both what weighs on you and the care directed toward you, but the Greek uses different words. Your μέριμνα (merimna, concern) can be understood as what pulls your attention in different directions; the verse shows it being cast onto the one who cares for you.
ALSO GROWS
merizō: To divide or distribute.
μερίζω
This traditional root connection gives a picture of concern as attention divided across what presses on you.
merimnaō: To be anxious or concerned.
μεριμνάω
This related verb appears in passages about anxious thought, linking the verse’s concern with a wider scriptural pattern.
ἐπιρίψαντες
epiripsantes
GROWS FROM
ῥίπτω
rhiptō
ῥίπτω (rhiptō) means to throw or cast; ἐπιρίπτω (epiriptō) means to throw upon.
“Casting” here carries the force of throwing something onto another, not keeping it in your own hands. The verse pictures the whole concern changing where it rests.
ALSO GROWS
rhiptō: To throw or cast.
ῥίπτω
This is the central action underneath “casting,” making the transfer vivid.
epiriptō: To throw something onto someone or something.
ἐπιρίπτω
This compound gives the action its direction: the concern is cast upon him.
μέλει
melei
GROWS FROM
μέλω
melō
μέλω (melō) means to matter to someone or to be an object of care.
The Greek word translated “careth” says that you matter to him; his concern is directed toward you. That makes the transfer in the verse rest on his care, not on the claim that your concerns are small.
ALSO GROWS
epimeleomai: To care for or attend to someone or something.
ἐπιμελέομαι
This related verb shows care as active attention, not distant regard.
epimeleia: Care or attentive provision.
ἐπιμέλεια
This related noun makes visible the practical attention contained in the claim that you matter to him.
THE PATTERN
Concern is named and transferred onto the one who sustains and cares for you.
Throw your load upon the LORD, and he holds you. He does not give the aligned one to totter for the ages.Therefore I say to you, do not be pulled apart over your living soul, over what you will eat or what you will drink, nor over your body, over what you will put on. Is not the living soul more than food, and the body more than clothing?Do not be pulled apart over anything, but in everything, through prayer and need, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.THE THREAD
Therefore I say to you, do not be pulled apart over your living soul, over what you will eat or what you will drink, nor over your body, over what you will put on. Is not the living soul more than food, and the body more than clothing?Matthew 6:25 uses the same Greek word family, μέριμνα (merimna, concern), in the phrase translated “Take no thought.” Both verses name the concern directly; 1 Peter shows it being cast onto the one who cares for you.
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