What Does Jeremiah 15:18 Mean?
Why has my pain become unending, and my wound past mending, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a lie, like waters that do not hold?
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
Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?THE KEY
The Hebrew makes a liar and a disappointing stream part of one word family, so the wound reaches into the trust of what should sustain you.
THE MEANING
Your pain keeps going, and the wound seems beyond remedy; the question reaches past why it hurts to whether the one you rely on can be trusted at all. The verse lets that fear stand in the open, without pretending the water has already returned.
THE ROOT
כְּמוֹ אַכְזָב
kemo akhzav
GROWS FROM
כזב
כזב (kazav) means to lie, prove false, or disappoint.
“a liar / waters that fail” in this verse is kemo akhzav. The word translated “liar” is tied to אַכְזָב (akhzav), a stream that disappoints. The image links a deceiver with water that cannot be relied on, giving the wound a second edge: what should sustain you feels untrustworthy.
ALSO GROWS
kazav: Falsehood or a lie.
כָּזָב
This is the root’s direct language of deception, present in the verse’s comparison to a liar.
akhzav: A deceptive or disappointing stream.
אַכְזָב
This branch makes the failure concrete: a source of water appears, but does not reliably sustain.
הֵרָפֵא
hērāpēʾ
GROWS FROM
רפא
רפא (rapha) means to heal.
“healed” in this verse is hērāpēʾ. The wound is described as refusing healing, while the root itself also gives the language for a healer and for healing. The possibility of healing remains inside the verse’s words even as the pain feels unending.
ALSO GROWS
rofe: A healer or physician.
רֹפֵא
The same root names one who heals, bringing the possibility of care into a verse where healing feels refused.
refu'ah: Healing or a cure.
רְפוּאָה
This branch makes healing a shared root with the wound’s present condition, rather than an idea from outside the verse.
לֹא נֶאֱמָנוּ
lo ne'emanu
GROWS FROM
אמן
אמן (ʾaman) means to be firm, steady, or reliable.
“waters that do not hold” in this verse is lo ne'emanu. The waters are described as not proving firm or reliable. The same root carries the sense of what can be trusted, so the image turns on the absence of a steady source.
ALSO GROWS
amen: Truly; firmly or surely.
אָמֵן
This familiar word carries the root’s sense of firmness, the very quality missing from the waters in the verse.
he'emin: To trust or regard as reliable.
הֶאֱמִין
This branch brings the image into the experience of trust: the water’s failure feels like having nothing dependable to lean on.
THE PATTERN
Lament brings the felt absence of help into direct speech to God.
To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why do you leave me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my roaring.O LORD, how long shall I cry out, and you will not hear and respond? I cry out to you of violence, and you will not deliver.And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why have you left me behind?THE THREAD
Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; deliver me, and I shall be delivered, for you are my praise.The same root רפא (rapha, heal) appears here as a direct plea: “Heal me.” Its echo holds the pain of an unhealed wound beside the words for healing, without making the wound feel small.
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