What Does Jeremiah 16:21 Mean?
Therefore, behold, with this blow I will cause them to know my hand and my strength, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.
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
Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.THE KEY
The name becomes recognizable when the LORD’s hand and might are made visible.
THE MEANING
You meet the LORD’s nature through his hand and might, as שֵׁם (shem, name as nature) comes into view through action. The verse repeats “cause them to know” before “they shall know”: disclosure is enacted, then recognized. This knowing carries force; the might is part of what becomes known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that knowing the LORD’s name means only recognizing a title; here, the name becomes known through an encounter with his hand and might.
THE ROOT
יָדַע
yada
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
Know, perceive
“cause them to know” in this verse is yada. The verse repeats causative forms of יָדַע (yada, know) and closes with וְיָדְעוּ (veyadʿu, and they shall know): disclosure is enacted, then recognized. Its first two consonants echo יָד (yad, hand), binding knowing to the hand by sound while the words remain distinct.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding
דַּעַת
This noun shows the same seed extending from the act of knowing into what is known.
hodiʿa: To make known
הוֹדִיעַ
This causative form illuminates “cause them to know”: knowing arrives through an act of disclosure.
גְּבוּרָתִי
gevurati
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
Be strong, prevail
“my strength” in this verse is gevurati. גְּבוּרָתִי (gevurati, my might) carries strength as capacity made manifest. Beside יָד (yad, hand), it presents what the LORD does as the means through which his nature becomes known.
ALSO GROWS
gibbor: Mighty one, warrior
גִּבּוֹר
The strength in “my might” shares its seed with the figure marked by might.
gevurah: Might, strength
גְּבוּרָה
This noun makes the shared root visible as power or capacity.
THE PATTERN
The LORD becomes known through encounters that reveal the character and force of his action.
And the Egyptians shall perceive that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.He judged the cause of the bowed low and the needy. Then it was good for him. Was this not to know me, says the LORD?And this is the life of the ages, that they might know you, the only God of truth, and Jesus, the Anointed One, whom you have sent.THE THREAD
And the Egyptians shall perceive that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.The same Hebrew root יָדַע (yada, know) appears beside יָד (yad, hand): the Egyptians know the LORD when his hand is stretched forth. Jeremiah’s “cause them to know mine hand” compresses that pattern, making the name YHWH recognizable through the hand’s action.
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