What Does Jeremiah 13:20 Mean?
Lift up your eyes, and see those who come from the hidden north. Where is the flock given to you, the flock of your adornment?
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
Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?THE KEY
The flock is named as your splendor, so its disappearance is also the loss of what makes the keeper beautiful.
THE MEANING
You are made to look toward what is coming from the north and face the question of where the flock went. The verse calls that entrusted flock your splendor, so its absence is both the loss of what was given and a wound to the keeper’s beauty.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a keeper’s beauty can remain untouched when the entrusted flock is gone: the verse calls the flock itself the keeper’s splendor.
THE ROOT
תִּפְאַרְתֵּךְ
tif'artekh
GROWS FROM
פָּאַר
pa'ar
To beautify, adorn, or glorify.
“adornment” in this verse is tif'artekh. The phrase can be heard as “the flock of your splendor,” not simply a flock that looks beautiful. What is entrusted to the keeper is also what reveals the keeper’s glory.
ALSO GROWS
pa'ar: To beautify, adorn, or glorify.
פָּאַר
The same root behind the flock’s beauty also names the act of adorning or glorifying.
pe'er: Headdress, ornament, or adornment.
פְּאֵר
This branch makes splendor concrete: it can be something worn or made visible.
tiferet: Beauty, splendor, or glory.
תִּפְאֶרֶת
This is the noun in the phrase for the keeper’s “beautiful flock”: the flock is called the keeper’s splendor.
נִתַּן
nittan
GROWS FROM
נָתַן
natan
To give, set, or place.
“given” in this verse is nittan. The flock is described as something placed into the keeper’s care. The word holds both giving and placing, so the question asks after a trust, not merely a possession.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give, set, or place.
נָתַן
This is the root’s basic action: something is put into another’s hands or care.
mattanah: Gift.
מַתָּנָה
A gift is something given and placed with its recipient, echoing the flock as a trust.
צָפוֹן
tsafon
GROWS FROM
צָפַן
tsaphan
To hide, conceal, or store away.
“hidden north” in this verse is tsafon. The Hebrew word for north belongs to a root family associated with hiding or storing away. The command to lift your eyes brings what comes from that hidden direction into view.
ALSO GROWS
tsaphan: To hide, conceal, or store away.
צָפַן
This root meaning lends “north” an echo of what is hidden or held out of sight.
tsafun: Hidden or concealed.
צָפוּן
The verse’s call to look makes the concealed direction visible.
THE PATTERN
A flock entrusted to a keeper becomes the visible measure of that keeper’s care.
Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds. I will search for my flock from their hand, and I will stop them from feeding the flock. The shepherds shall feed themselves no more, for I will snatch my flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his living soul for the sheep.Shepherd the flock of God among you, watching over it, not by force but willingly, according to God; and not for shameful gain but eagerly.THE THREAD
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you, and the rams of Nebaioth shall attend you; they shall come up with favor upon my altar, and I will adorn the house of my adornment.Jeremiah calls the flock the keeper’s splendor; Isaiah uses the same pa’ar root in “I will glorify” and “my glory.” The shared root lets the flock’s absence register as a loss of splendor, while Isaiah pictures gathered flocks alongside renewed glory.
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