What Does Jeremiah 15:17 Mean?
I did not sit in the circle of the laughers, nor did I leap. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.
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
I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the mockers “laughers,” so the speaker is separated not just from a crowd but from its shared way of taking delight.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you when a crowd’s laughter feels impossible to join because something heavier is holding your attention. The speaker sits alone under God’s hand, filled with indignation; the solitude is charged, not peaceful. The words let both separation and inner heat remain in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being alone does not always mean you are beyond God’s reach; here, solitude is tied to God’s hand.
THE ROOT
מְשַׂחֲקִים
məśaḥăqîm
GROWS FROM
שׂחק
ś-ḥ-q
To laugh or play; in this context, to mock.
“laughers” in this verse is məśaḥăqîm. The word translated “mockers” comes from the laugh-and-play family. The scene is about more than avoiding cruel speech: the speaker cannot join the group’s shared laughter while carrying this inner burden.
ALSO GROWS
śəḥōq: Laughter, derision.
שְׂחוֹק
It shows how the root can name laughter that becomes the group’s shared expression.
miśḥāq: Play, sport.
מִשְׂחָק
This branch preserves the root’s sense of play, which gives “mockers” a social texture beyond a label for bad people.
בָּדָד
bādād
GROWS FROM
בדד
b-d-d
To be separate or isolated.
“alone” in this verse is bādād. Badad names separation as a condition. The speaker’s sitting apart follows his refusal to enter the group’s gathering, and the verse ties that solitude to God’s hand rather than describing it as a simple retreat.
ALSO GROWS
ləvad: Alone, by oneself.
לְבַד
It carries the same apartness into the everyday idea of being by oneself.
bōdēd: Isolated, solitary.
בּוֹדֵד
This related form makes the root’s sense of separation explicit.
THE PATTERN
A divine burden can withdraw a person from easy company and fill the inner life with costly pressure.
So the breath lifted me up, and took hold of me, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my breath; but the hand of the LORD held fast upon me.Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his nature. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it in, and I could not.And now, look, I go, bound in the breath, to Jerusalem, not seeing what will meet me there;THE THREAD
Your words were found, and I ate them; and your word became joy to me and the gladness of my heart, for your name is called upon me, LORD God of hosts.The preceding verse names God’s words as joy in the heart; this verse shows the same encounter alongside solitude and indignation. The joy does not erase the weight, the two occupy the same inner life.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us