What Does Jeremiah 17:15 Mean?
Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now.
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
Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.THE KEY
“Word” can name both speech and the matter itself, so the challenge asks whether the LORD’s utterance will enter reality.
THE MEANING
This voice in you asks whether the LORD’s word will actually arrive. The verse holds the demand open: the word is not proved by being announced, but by coming into the life it names.
THE ROOT
דְבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak or declare; the related noun can name a word, matter, or affair.
English “word” can sound like speech alone, but Hebrew davar can also name the matter itself. The question presses for the LORD’s speech to enter as reality, not remain a claim.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word; matter; affair
דָּבָר
It lets “the word” carry both what is spoken and the matter whose arrival is demanded.
dibber: Spoke; declared
דִּבֶּר
This verbal form keeps the utterance active: the word is speech that moves toward what it names.
יָבוֹא
yavo
GROWS FROM
בוא
b-w-ʾ
To come or enter.
“Let it come now” in this verse is yavo. The plea asks the word to enter the scene now. Speech and arrival are held together: the word’s coming is the point at issue.
ALSO GROWS
bo: Come; enter
בּוֹא
It gives “let it come” the sense of arrival into the present scene.
mavo: Entrance; entry
מָבוֹא
This related noun makes the root’s movement into a place explicit.
THE PATTERN
A spoken word is exposed by whether it enters reality and does what it says.
When the prophet speaks in the nature of the LORD, if the word does not come to be, nor arrive, it is the word the LORD has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it in a boiling over. You shall not cower from him.So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.But those on the good soil are the ones who, in a noble and good heart, having heard the word, hold it fast, and bring forth fruit by remaining beneath the weight.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to me, You have seen well, for I keep watch over my word to do it.“My word” here is the same Hebrew davar, דָּבָר, pressed on in Jeremiah 17:15. Here the word is watched over until its work is performed, opening the challenge as a demand for speech to become lived reality.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us