What Does Jeremiah 15:7 Mean?
I will winnow them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land. I will make them childless; I will make my people lose the way, since they have not turned from their ways.
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
And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.THE KEY
The Hebrew says, in effect, “I will scatter them with a scattering fork,” making dispersion the verse’s governing image.
THE MEANING
The verse places before you a severe verdict: those who will not turn from their paths are scattered, bereaved of children, and destroyed. The winnowing image does not soften the loss named here. Its final words put the unturned way beside the devastation that follows.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a destructive course can remain unchanged forever without consequence.
THE ROOT
וָאֶזְרֵם
vāʾezrēm
GROWS FROM
ז־ר־ה
z-r-h
to scatter or disperse; to winnow
“winnow them with a winnowing fork” in this verse is vāʾezrēm. The KJV preserves a Hebrew verb and its related instrument in “fan them with a fan.” Both grow from זרה, so the people are scattered by an implement named from the act itself: a winnowing image carried into national dispersion.
ALSO GROWS
zārâ: to winnow; to scatter
זָרָה
This verb names the action applied to the people in the verse.
mizreh: a winnowing fork or shovel
מִזְרֶה
The instrument shares the verb’s root, joining the tool and the scattering in one image.
שָׁבוּ
shāvû
GROWS FROM
ש־ו־ב
sh-w-b
to turn back or return; in a causative form, to bring back
“turned from” in this verse is shāvû. The people have not turned back. The same root can describe someone returning and another bringing that person back, joining turning and restoration in one word family.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return; turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun carries the return that the people in the verse have not made.
hēshîv: to bring back; restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shows the same root describing restoration as well as a person’s return.
THE PATTERN
When a destructive path remains unturned, it leads toward loss; turning back opens a way toward life and gathering.
Then the LORD your God will turn back your captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will turn back and gather you from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you.If you turn, O Israel, declares the LORD, turn back to me; and if you remove your loathsome things from before my face, you will not be shaken.Let him know that the one who turns back one of those who miss the mark from the wandering of his way will deliver a living soul from death, and will cover a multitude of shortcomings.THE THREAD
Therefore thus says the LORD, If you turn, then I will turn you back, and you will stand before my face. If you bring out the weighty from the worthless, you will be as my mouth. They will turn to you, but you will not turn to them.The root שׁוּב (shuv, “turn or return”) that names the people’s refusal in verse 7 appears repeatedly here. The KJV renders it as both “return” and “bring thee again,” revealing the root’s link between turning back and being restored.
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