What Does Jeremiah 10:23 Mean?
O LORD, I perceive that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in a man who walks to set firm his steps.
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
O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.THE KEY
A person can walk a path without having the power to establish the firmness of the next step from within himself.
THE MEANING
Your path is not fully contained within you, and your walking does not give you power to establish the footing of every next step. You move, yet direction is not self-sufficient.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that knowing yourself or exerting enough control can guarantee where your life will go.
THE ROOT
וְהָכִין
vehakhin
GROWS FROM
כון
To be firm or established; in this causative form, to establish or prepare.
“set firm” in this verse is vehakhin. The verb brings firmness and preparation into what English calls directing: the walker cannot establish his own footing. Proverbs 16:9 uses the same root when it says the LORD establishes a person’s steps.
ALSO GROWS
yakhin: He establishes or makes firm.
יָכִין
This form from the same root appears in Proverbs 16:9, where the LORD establishes a person’s steps.
nakhon: Firm, established, or ready.
נָכוֹן
This branch shows the stable state carried by the root: the question is who makes the next step firm.
דַּרְכּוֹ
darko
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread or step along.
The word for “way” grows from the image of treading: a way is a course made and traveled by steps. The verse sets that lived path beside the walker’s inability to establish his own footing.
ALSO GROWS
darakh: To tread, step, or march.
דָּרַךְ
This verb makes the root image of a way concrete as movement along a course.
midrakh: A place to tread; a footprint or footing.
מִדְרָךְ
This branch carries the root’s sense of a course made underfoot, echoing the verse’s focus on the walker and his steps.
צַעֲדוֹ
tsa'ado
GROWS FROM
צעד
To step or stride.
“steps” in this verse is tsa'ado. The verse brings its claim down to the scale of a single stride: even the next step is not secured by the walker alone. Its language keeps direction close to the movement of a person’s feet.
ALSO GROWS
tsa'ad: To step or stride.
צָעַד
This verb supplies the movement behind the word for “his step” in the verse.
mits'ad: A step or footstep.
מִצְעָד
Psalm 37:23 uses this word family for a person’s “steps,” extending the same image of a stride ordered by the LORD.
THE PATTERN
A person can plan and move, while the path’s firm establishment remains beyond self-direction.
The steps of a strong one are set firm by the LORD, and he delights in his way.A person's heart plans his way, but the LORD sets his steps firm.Instead, you ought to say, "If the LORD wills, we will live, and do this or that."THE THREAD
A person's heart plans his way, but the LORD sets his steps firm.Jeremiah’s וְהָכִין (vehakhin) and Proverbs’ יָכִין (yakhin) come from כון, “to establish.” Jeremiah names what the walker cannot establish for himself; Proverbs names the LORD as the one who establishes his steps.
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