What Does Jeremiah 14:21 Mean?
Do not spurn us for the sake of your nature; do not wither the throne of your weight. Remember, and do not break your covenant with us.
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
Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.THE KEY
The plea treats God’s name and throne as bound to the continued force of his covenant.
THE MEANING
You are inside a communal plea that names the fear of rejection without claiming innocence. It asks that God’s covenant remain in force, appealing to God’s name and throne rather than the people’s worthiness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that only the innocent can appeal to the covenant: the speaker names the threat and still appeals to the bond.
THE ROOT
זְכֹר
zekhor
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
remember, call to mind, mention
Here, “remember” asks that the covenant be held in active regard, beyond retrieving a fact. The paired request not to break the covenant makes remembrance and keeping the bond in force two sides of the same appeal.
ALSO GROWS
zikaron: remembrance; memorial
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps something present in view, echoing the plea that the covenant not be forgotten or set aside.
zekher: remembrance; mention; reputation
זֵכֶר
This branch links remembering with what is kept in mind and spoken of.
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
be heavy, weighty
The throne’s glory carries the sense of weight and honor, not only splendor. The plea places God’s standing and the people’s fear of disgrace within the same image of weight.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: heavy; weighty
כָּבֵד
This form makes the physical sense of weight audible beneath “glory.”
kibbed: honor; treat as weighty
כִּבֵּד
This branch connects weight with the honor the plea asks not to bring into disgrace.
תָּפֵר
tafer
GROWS FROM
הפר
parar
break, annul, frustrate
The request is that the covenant not be rendered void. This root gives “break” the force of annulment: the plea asks that the bond retain its force.
ALSO GROWS
hefer: he violated; annulled
הֵפֵר
This form names the act the plea asks God not to do to the covenant.
mefer: one who breaks or annuls
מֵפֵר
This form shows the root’s connection to making a bond void.
THE PATTERN
When human failure threatens the bond, the appeal rests on God’s remembered covenant and promise.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, and said to them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it for the ages.And he remembered for them his covenant, and relented according to the multitude of his faithful love.To make faithful love with our fathers, and to remember his set-apart covenant;THE THREAD
Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.Leviticus 26:42 sets זָכַר (zakar, “remember”) beside בְּרִית (berit, “covenant”), the same covenant language Jeremiah invokes. It opens the plea further: remembering keeps the covenant in view, while breaking it would annul the bond.
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