What Does Jeremiah 17:19 Mean?
Thus says the LORD to me, Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, where the kings of Judah enter and go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
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
Thus said the LORD unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;THE KEY
The gate is where rule becomes visible: kings have to pass through it, coming and going.
THE MEANING
The word meets you at the public threshold where power moves: rulers enter, rulers leave, and the people’s gate bears witness to that circulation. Its attention holds every gate in view, so no single entrance stands apart from the city’s shared life. The city’s name carries wholeness in a doubled form; every gate brings the whole city’s movement into view.
THE ROOT
שַׁעַר
sha'ar
GROWS FROM
שער
sha'ar
Gate, entrance, or passage.
English can make a gate sound like a static boundary, but this word-family includes the gate, its many gates, and the keeper at the gate. Here the kings’ coming and going makes the gate a place where the city’s movement and authority are exposed.
ALSO GROWS
sha'ar: Gate or entrance.
שַׁעַר
It names the threshold through which the kings come and go.
she'arim: Gates.
שְׁעָרִים
The verse widens the view from one public gate to every gate of the city.
sho'er: Gatekeeper.
שׁוֹעֵר
The keeper belongs to the same gate-family, showing that passage and responsibility meet at the threshold.
עָמַד
amad
GROWS FROM
עמד
ʿ-m-d
To stand, remain, or take one’s place.
The command to stand carries the sense of taking a position, not simply pausing. The threshold becomes a station from which the movement of rulers through the city is seen.
ALSO GROWS
amad: To stand or remain.
עָמַד
This is the action at the heart of the command: be present at the gate.
ma'amad: A standing place, position, or station.
מַעֲמָד
This branch makes visible the idea of being placed at a particular point, which gives the gate its role as a place of witness.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
Wholeness or completeness, carried in the name’s shalom element.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The city’s name carries shalom, wholeness, in a doubled form. The attention to every gate places the city’s whole passage and movement in view.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness.
שָׁלוֹם
It gives the city’s name its resonance of wholeness.
shalem: Whole or complete.
שָׁלֵם
This related form echoes the sense carried by the name and its doubled ending.
THE PATTERN
A gate is the shared threshold where entry, exit, judgment, and welcome become visible.
Then Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz had spoken came by, and Boaz said to him, Ho, such a one! Turn aside, sit here. And he turned aside and sat there.Lift up your heads, O gates; and be lifted up, O doors of the ages; and the King of weight enters.I am the door. Through me, if anyone enters, he shall be delivered, and shall go in and out, and shall find pasture.THE THREAD
Open to me the gates of alignment; I enter them, and I extend my hands to the LORD.The same gate word, שַׁעַר (sha’ar, gate), appears here as an opening for passage. In Jeremiah the gate displays rulers’ movement in both directions; here it becomes passage into alignment, linking shared access with wholeness.
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