What Does Jeremiah 17:13 Mean?
O LORD, the gathering pool of Israel, all who leave you shall be ashamed; those who turn aside from me shall be written in the earth, for they have left the LORD, the spring of living waters.
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
O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.THE KEY
Israel’s “hope” is named with a word that can also mean a gathered pool, just before the verse calls the LORD the fountain of living waters.
THE MEANING
Your hope is the LORD, both the one you await and the source of living water. To forsake that source is to come to shame and be written in the earth; the verse leaves that stark image beside the fountain of life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that leaving the source of life is a harmless alternative: it names shame and an earth-written fate.
THE ROOT
מִקְוֵה
miqveh
GROWS FROM
קוה
qavah
to wait for, hope for
“gathering pool” in this verse is miqveh. The word for hope, מִקְוֵה (miqveh), and the later word for fountain, מָקוֹר (maqor), share the written sequence מ־ק־ו but come from distinct roots. Their echo lets hope and water-source resonate: the LORD is both the one Israel awaits and the source that flows.
ALSO GROWS
tiqvah: hope, expectation
תִּקְוָה
This related word carries the same root into expectation, making hope more than a passing wish.
miqveh: a gathering or pool of water
מִקְוֵה
The same word can name gathered water, linking Israel’s hope with the fountain of living waters in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Life is found in its source; turning away from that source leaves only what cannot sustain life.
For my people have done two evils; they have let go of me, the spring of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, shattered cisterns that cannot grip water.For with you is the spring of life; in your light we see light.The one who leans his weight into me, as the writing has said, rivers of living waters will flow from his belly.THE THREAD
For my people have done two evils; they have let go of me, the spring of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, shattered cisterns that cannot grip water.The same Hebrew verb for forsaking appears in both verses, and Jeremiah 2:13 names the one forsaken as “the fountain of living waters.” That makes the image in 17:13 explicit: to forsake the LORD is to leave the source itself.
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