What Does Jeremiah 15:5 Mean?
For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Who will shake his head over you? Who will turn aside to ask after your wholeness?
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
For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?THE KEY
Jerusalem carries shalom in her name, yet nobody turns aside even to ask after her wholeness.
THE MEANING
Jerusalem is described as so abandoned that no one pities her, grieves with her, or asks after her well-being. The verse names the wound plainly: even the question “How are you?” is missing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The assumption that suffering always draws attention falls away: Jerusalem’s pain meets no pity, and her well-being draws no inquiry.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
to be whole or complete; by extension, to be well or intact
“after your wholeness” in this verse is shalom. The Hebrew asks who will inquire after Jerusalem’s shalom, her wholeness and well-being. English makes this sound like a general question about how she is doing, while the Hebrew keeps the word for wholeness in view.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole or complete
שָׁלֵם
This related form makes the question about whether Jerusalem is intact, not merely whether she feels calm.
shillēm: To repay or make good
שִׁלֵּם
The same root can describe making good what is owed, giving wholeness an active, restorative edge.
יָסוּר
yāsūr
GROWS FROM
סור
s-w-r
to turn aside, depart, or withdraw
“go aside” in this verse is yāsūr. The Hebrew pictures someone changing direction in order to ask after Jerusalem. The root also forms a verb meaning to remove something, sharpening the absence: nobody turns from their own course toward her.
ALSO GROWS
sūr: To turn aside or depart
סוּר
This is the movement the verse says nobody makes for Jerusalem.
hēsīr: To remove or take away
הֵסִיר
This related form shows the root’s range from turning away to removing, while the verse focuses on the turn no one makes toward her.
יָנוּד
yānūd
GROWS FROM
נוד
n-w-d
to move to and fro or wander; in this context, to show grief
“shake his head over you” in this verse is yānūd. “Bemoan” carries a physical motion in Hebrew: to be moved or to nod in grief. The question is not only whether anyone speaks about Jerusalem’s sorrow, but whether anyone is moved by it.
ALSO GROWS
nād: A wanderer or fugitive
נָד
This related form links the root’s movement to the condition of being displaced.
nūd: To move to and fro or express grief
נוּד
The word for mourning carries the motion of a body responding to another’s distress.
THE PATTERN
Care takes shape as someone turns toward another’s distress and asks after their well-being.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the bending low of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their drivers. For I know their pains.Ask for the wholeness of Jerusalem; those who love you are at ease.But a certain Samaritan, walking the road, came where he was, and when he saw him, his insides moved over him.THE THREAD
Ask for the wholeness of Jerusalem; those who love you are at ease.Jeremiah asks who will inquire after Jerusalem’s shalom; the psalm makes that very concern a prayer for Jerusalem. The question no one asks here becomes the petition voiced there.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us