What Does Jeremiah 11:18 Mean?
And the LORD has made me know it, and I have known it. Then you made me see their deeds.
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
And the LORD hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.THE KEY
The verse moves from knowledge to sight: what the LORD makes known becomes visible in the deeds themselves.
THE MEANING
The LORD makes what is hidden known to you, and what is known becomes visible in the actions themselves. This is an encounter that moves from recognition to sight, so concealed conduct no longer remains abstract.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
What is concealed can never be brought into view.
THE ROOT
הוֹדִיעָנִי
hodi'ani
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know or perceive through encounter.
“has made me know it” in this verse is hodi'ani. The opening phrase and “I know” both grow from ידע (yada): the LORD makes known, and the speaker comes to know. English gives these as separate ideas, while Hebrew shows one movement from disclosure into knowing.
ALSO GROWS
yada: Know, perceive.
יָדַע
This is the root verb behind “I know,” with knowing understood as perception through encounter.
de'ah: Knowledge, understanding.
דֵּעָה
This noun from the same root echoes the verse’s opening “knowledge” as the substance of what is made known.
hodi'a: Make known, inform.
הוֹדִיעַ
This causative form of yada describes the LORD setting the knowing in motion.
הִרְאִיתַנִי
hir'itani
GROWS FROM
ראה
To see, look, or perceive.
“made me see” in this verse is hir'itani. “Shewedst me” is built from the root for seeing: the LORD causes the speaker to see their deeds. The verse’s knowing therefore arrives not as detached information but as something brought into view.
ALSO GROWS
ra'ah: See, look, perceive.
רָאָה
This is the verb at the root of “shewedst,” making the disclosure an act of seeing.
ro'eh: One who sees; a seer.
רֹאֶה
This branch names the one who perceives, echoing the speaker’s change from being told to seeing.
mar'eh: Sight, appearance.
מַרְאֶה
This branch links the root to what comes into view when the deeds are shown.
THE PATTERN
What is hidden is brought into knowledge and sight through disclosure.
Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.He uncovers the deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light rests with him.For there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be known.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, you probe me, and you perceive me.“Known” comes from ידע (yada), the same root repeated when knowledge is given and received in Jeremiah. The Psalm turns the disclosure inward: the one who brings hidden deeds into view also knows the reader.
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