What Does Jeremiah 11:20 Mean?
But, O LORD of hosts, who judges in alignment and tests the kidneys and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have uncovered my case.
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
But, O LORD of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause.THE KEY
The one who hears your case also tests the hidden place from which you bring it.
THE MEANING
The LORD sees what is concealed in you, the kidneys rendered “reins,” and the heart, and judges with alignment. The speaker lays his cause open and asks to see vengeance on his opponents, even as he stands before the one who tests him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that a hidden motive escapes judgment as long as the public case sounds right.
THE ROOT
בֹּחֵן
boḥēn
GROWS FROM
בחן
To test or examine, probing what is being assessed.
“tests” in this verse is boḥēn. בחן is the verb for examining or testing; here, the examination reaches the kidneys, rendered “reins,” and the heart. The image places judgment at the hidden center, not only at the visible claim.
ALSO GROWS
even boḥan: A tested stone.
אֶבֶן בֹּחַן
The phrase names a stone proven under scrutiny; here, the same root’s test reaches the inward parts.
mivḥan: A test or examination.
מִבְחָן
This later form preserves the root’s sense of a test that exposes what stands up to examination.
צֶדֶק
tsedeq
GROWS FROM
צדק
Justice, rightness, being aligned or in the right.
“judges in alignment” in this verse is tsedeq. The verse joins testing with צדק, alignment: judgment measures what is inward against what is right. The English “righteously” carries this sense of a judgment brought into alignment.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: A righteous or aligned person.
צַדִּיק
The same root describes a person in right standing, connecting judgment with the state it recognizes.
tsedaqah: Righteousness, justice, or alignment.
צְדָקָה
This branch names the quality of right order that the verse attributes to the judge.
גִּלִּיתִי
gilliti
GROWS FROM
גלה
To uncover, expose, or reveal.
“uncovered my case” in this verse is gilliti. The speaker’s cause is not merely reported; it is uncovered before God. The root connects the hidden inner parts being tested with the matter brought into the open.
ALSO GROWS
galah: To uncover or reveal.
גָּלָה
This verb names the act of opening what was concealed, as the speaker does with his cause.
niglah: To be revealed or become visible.
נִגְלָה
This form describes what happens when something hidden comes into view, echoing the verse’s movement from inward testing to an exposed case.
THE PATTERN
Divine judgment reaches the hidden center as fully as the visible case.
Let the evil of the wicked now be spent, and set the aligned one firm, for the aligned God tests the hearts and kidneys.I, the LORD, search the heart and test the kidneys, to give each one according to his way, according to the fruit of his deeds.And the one who searches the hearts knows what is the setting of the breath, because it approaches on behalf of the set apart ones according to the will of God.THE THREAD
Examine me, O LORD, and test me; refine my kidneys and my heart.Psalm 26:2 uses the same Hebrew root בָּחַן (bāḥan, “test or examine”) and the same reins-and-heart image. Here the speaker asks to see vengeance on his opponents; there, the speaker asks for that searching to reach himself.
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