What Does Jeremiah 12:15 Mean?
And it shall come to pass, after I have uprooted them, that I will turn back and have compassion on them. I will bring them back, each to his heritage, and each to his land.
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 it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.THE KEY
The same God who plucks them out names compassion as the force that returns each person to a particular place of belonging.
THE MEANING
Being uprooted does not erase the possibility of return: compassion brings each person back to a heritage and a land. The promise speaks of restoration as personal, with each one returned to a place of belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that displacement has permanently erased your place is undone here: being uprooted is not the final word.
THE ROOT
וְרִחַמְתִּים
wə-riḥamtîm
GROWS FROM
רחם
To have compassion; the root is also found in the Hebrew word for womb.
The verse’s “have compassion” comes from רחם (r-ḥ-m), whose noun רֶחֶם (reḥem) means “womb.” English separates compassion from that word, while Hebrew joins them in a root that can evoke life-bearing tenderness gathering the uprooted back.
ALSO GROWS
reḥem: Womb.
רֶחֶם
This noun shares the root’s consonants, רחם, and brings a womb’s sheltering, life-bearing image alongside the compassion that restores.
raḥămîm: Compassion, mercies.
רַחֲמִים
This noun carries the same root consonants and names the compassion promised to those who have been plucked out.
raḥûm: Compassionate, merciful.
רַחוּם
This adjective shares the root consonants and describes the quality of the one who returns each person to their place.
THE PATTERN
Compassion does not stop at rescue from displacement; it returns each person to a place of belonging.
Then the LORD your God will turn back your captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will turn back and gather you from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you.For I will take you from among the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.THE THREAD
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,Jeremiah’s “have compassion” comes from רחם (r-ḥ-m), the same root in רַחוּם (raḥûm), rendered “merciful” here. The connection presents compassion as a named quality of the one who restores.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us