What Does Jeremiah 17:18 Mean?
Let them be ashamed who pursue me, but let not me be ashamed; let them be shattered, but let not me be shattered; bring upon them the day of harm, and break them with a double breaking.
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
Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.THE KEY
“Double destruction” and “destroy them” carry the same Hebrew root, turning the plea into a deliberate repetition of breaking.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the reader words for a raw plea: let those who pursue me fall into shame and dismay while I remain unshaken. It also names the desire without softening it: let calamity come upon them, and let their ruin be doubled.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that prayer must hide its desire for retribution: the speaker asks plainly for the pursuers’ ruin.
THE ROOT
שִׁבָּרוֹן
shibbārôn
GROWS FROM
שבר
to break, fracture, or shatter
The Hebrew repeats שבר in both “destruction” and “destroy them,” while מִשְׁנֶה (mishneh, “double”) intensifies the breaking. English makes these a noun and a verb; the repeated consonants keep them visibly joined.
ALSO GROWS
shāvar: to break or shatter
שָׁבַר
This verb shares the root in שָׁבְרֵם (shavrem), “destroy them,” making the requested action another form of breaking.
shever: fracture, ruin, or calamity
שֶׁבֶר
This noun shows how the same root can name the resulting break or ruin.
nishbar: broken
נִשְׁבָּר
Psalm 51:17 uses this form for a broken heart, showing that שבר names breaking itself, with its meaning shaped by what is broken and how the verse regards it.
THE PATTERN
When persecution is named, the prayer can ask both for the threatened one to remain standing and for the pursuer to face ruin.
Let them be shamed and brought low, those who seek my living soul; let them turn back and be exposed, those who plan my harm.Since it is aligned with God to give back pressure to those who press you.And they cry out with a great voice, saying, How long, Set-Apart and true Master, will you not judge and avenge our blood against those who settle upon the earth?THE THREAD
The slaughtered offerings of God are a broken breath; a broken and crushed heart, O God, you do not despise.“Double destruction” and “broken” share the Hebrew root שבר (shavar, to break). The same root that names the ruin sought for the pursuers can describe a broken heart that God does not despise.
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