What Does Jeremiah 13:8 Mean?
Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
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
Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,THE KEY
The LORD’s word arrives to you as an event: the Hebrew says it comes to be, then speaks.
THE MEANING
A word from the LORD reaches you as something happening, not merely an idea you hold. It comes with speech: what arrives is already saying something.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; a word or matter.
Davar can mean a spoken word, a matter, or a thing, so the verse’s “word” carries substance as well as speech. The line then uses a second root, amar (“say”), to make that arriving matter audible.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The verb shares the root of davar, showing speech and the word that is spoken growing from the same seed.
devarim: Words or matters.
דְּבָרִים
This plural preserves the root’s range: what is spoken can also be the matter itself.
לֵאמֹר
lemor
GROWS FROM
אמר
ʾ-m-r
Say; utter.
The verse pairs davar, the word or matter that arrives, with amar, the act of saying. What reaches you is not left abstract; the sentence presents it as moving directly into speech.
ALSO GROWS
amar: Say or speak.
אָמַר
This is the verb behind lemor, the verse’s direct signal that the arriving word speaks.
imrah: Utterance or saying.
אִמְרָה
This related noun keeps the focus on spoken expression, echoing the verse’s movement from arrival to speech.
THE PATTERN
The word of God reaches people as a speaking event, not merely an idea.
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.The word of the LORD came, indeed came, to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar, and the hand of the LORD was there upon him.While Annas and Caiaphas were the chief priests, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.THE THREAD
By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.Psalm 33:6 uses the same Hebrew word, davar, for the word by which the heavens are made. Here that word reaches a hearer and speaks; there it is bound to the breath of the LORD’s mouth and the making of the heavens.
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