What Does Jeremiah 17:11 Mean?
As the partridge broods on eggs she did not bring forth, so is the one who makes wealth and not by right; in the midst of his days he shall leave it, and at his end he shall be a fool.
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
As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.THE KEY
The verse links brooding without birth to wealth without justice: what is held without a just foundation cannot secure the holder’s future.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to the fragility of wealth gained outside justice: possession alone does not make it secure. What seems gathered can leave its holder while life is still underway, exposing the folly within the gain.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that having wealth proves it is rightfully yours or that it will keep you secure.
THE ROOT
מִשְׁפָּט
mishpat
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, decide, or govern a matter.
The phrase rendered “not by right” names wealth detached from mishpat: judgment, justice, and the ordering of a matter. The verse’s concern is not possession by itself, but gain held apart from what makes it just.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: Judge
שֹׁפֵט
The judge is the one who decides what is just, the measure the wealth in this verse lacks.
mishpat: Judgment, justice, or an ordinance
מִשְׁפָּט
This is the word in the verse: the wealth is gathered without the order or justice that would ground it.
עֹשֶׁר
osher
GROWS FROM
עשר
To be rich or become wealthy.
“makes wealth” in this verse is osher. The verse’s “riches” belong to a root that also forms “rich” and “make rich.” Jeremiah describes wealth acquired without justice; Proverbs uses this same root for wealth that comes with the LORD’s blessing. The shared root brings the question of wealth’s source into view.
ALSO GROWS
ashir: Rich or wealthy
עָשִׁיר
It names the person marked by the same wealth-root that appears in the verse.
taʿashir: Makes rich
תַּעֲשִׁיר
This form appears in Proverbs 10:22, where the LORD’s blessing makes rich, creating a root-level contrast with wealth gathered without justice.
יָלָד
yalad
GROWS FROM
ילד
To give birth, bear, or bring forth.
“she did not bring forth” in this verse is yalad. The Hebrew describes the partridge’s failure with a birth-word: it broods, but does not bring forth. That image makes the wealth resemble something possessed without producing a lasting future; the verse then says it leaves its holder before life is over.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: Child
יֶלֶד
This noun names what is brought forth, sharpening the contrast between brooding and producing life.
holid: Beget or bring forth
הוֹלִיד
This form makes the root’s generative sense explicit: the image turns on what does, or does not, come into being.
THE PATTERN
Wealth detached from justice cannot secure its possessor and may become the source of loss.
Wealth from breath shrinks; the one who gathers by hand grows.There is a sickening harm I have seen under the sun, wealth guarded for its owners to their harm.But God said to him, Mindless one, this night your living soul will be demanded back from you. Then whose will those things be that you have made ready?THE THREAD
The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no pain with it.Jeremiah’s “riches” and Proverbs’ “maketh rich” grow from the same Hebrew root, עשר (ʿ-š-r). Jeremiah describes wealth gained without justice; Proverbs describes the LORD’s blessing making rich, bringing two different sources of wealth into view through the shared root.
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