What Does Jeremiah 16:8 Mean?

And you shall not enter the house of drinking, to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

Jeremiah 16:8 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

THE KEY

The Hebrew word for sitting also carries the sense of dwelling, so a seat at the feast is a place of settled belonging.

THE MEANING

You are not to enter the house of feasting or sit among those who eat and drink together. The verse makes separation tangible through the ordinary acts of sharing a seat, food, and drink.

THE ROOT

לָשֶׁבֶת

lashevet

GROWS FROM

ישב

To sit, dwell, or remain in a place.

“sit” in this verse is lashevet. The Hebrew verb for sitting belongs to a root that also means dwelling and remaining. The verse’s seat is therefore more than a posture: it is a settled place among the people sharing the meal.

ALSO GROWS

yoshev: One who sits or dwells.

יֹשֵׁב

This form makes the root’s connection between taking a seat and inhabiting a place explicit.

yeshivah: Sitting, a session, or an assembly.

יְשִׁיבָה

The word extends sitting into a gathered company, echoing the shared place at the feast.

THE PATTERN

A shared meal makes relationship visible through presence at the table.

You lay out a table before my face, in full view of those who press me. You make my head rich with oil; my cup is soaked full.

Psalm 23:5 · SDVThe prepared table and overflowing cup make welcome and provision visible in a shared meal.

When the scribes and the separated ones saw him eat with tax collectors and those who miss the mark, they said to his disciples, How is it that he eats and drinks with them?

Mark 2:16 · SDVEating and drinking together make the company visible, so the meal reveals who shares a table with whom.

THE THREAD

Flourishing is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of those who miss the mark, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.

Psalm 1:1 · SDV

Jeremiah’s ⁨לָשֶׁבֶת⁩ (lashevet) and Psalm 1’s ⁨יָשָׁב⁩ (yashav), “sitteth,” share the Hebrew root ⁨ישב⁩. In both verses, sitting carries the sense of taking a settled place among a company.

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