What Does Jeremiah 17:26 Mean?
And they shall come from the cities of Judah, from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the mountains, and from the dry south, bringing ascending offerings and sacrifices and gifts, frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of extended hands to the house of the LORD.
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
And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the LORD.THE KEY
Judah (יְהוּדָה, Yehudah, “praise”) arrives carrying todah (תּוֹדָה, “thanksgiving”), so the place and the offering meet in one word-family.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to you as a movement from scattered places into a shared presence: city, surrounding country, plain, mountain, and south all converge at the LORD’s house. You arrive carrying different forms of gift, and praise itself is named as an offering brought there. Judah’s name echoes praise, so the place and the offering meet in one word-family.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Praise is not only an inward feeling or spoken line; here it is an offering brought alongside other gifts.
THE ROOT
תּוֹדָה
todah
GROWS FROM
ידה
To acknowledge, give thanks, or praise.
“sacrifices of extended hands” in this verse is todah. The verse’s Judah (יְהוּדָה, Yehudah, “Judah”) is linked to the same root as todah, the thanksgiving offering. The land’s name and the final gift echo one another: praise arrives bearing praise.
ALSO GROWS
yadah: A verb for giving thanks, praising, or acknowledging.
יָדָה
Todah is the brought act of praise named by this verb.
Yehudah: Judah, whose name is associated with giving thanks or praise.
יְהוּדָה
The verse names Judah and then names a todah offering, bringing the place and its gift into the same word-family.
מְבִאֵי
mevi'ei
GROWS FROM
בוא
To come or enter; in a causative form, to bring or cause to enter.
The verse uses this root first for the people who come and again for those bringing praise. Their arrival already carries something into the LORD’s house.
ALSO GROWS
bo: To come or enter.
בּוֹא
This is the root behind the verse’s opening movement: “they shall come.”
hevi: To bring or cause something to enter.
הֵבִיא
The causative form makes the movement tangible: the people come, bringing offerings with them.
עֹלוֹת
olot
GROWS FROM
עלה
To rise, ascend, or go up.
“ascending offerings” in this verse is olot. The Hebrew term for burnt offerings grows from the word for rising or ascending. As people come inward from many places, the offering is pictured as rising toward the LORD’s house.
ALSO GROWS
alah: A verb for moving upward or ascending.
עָלָה
It gives the burnt offering its image of an offering that rises.
aliyah: An ascent or upward movement.
עֲלִיָּה
This related word makes the upward direction within olot easier to hear.
THE PATTERN
Many places and kinds of people converge at the divine dwelling, where arrival becomes an offering of praise.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with a clamor of praise; lift your hands to him, and bless his nature.A flood of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah. All from Sheba shall come, carrying gold and frankincense, and they shall proclaim the praises of the LORD.After this I see, and look, a great crowd that no one can number, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wrapped in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And they cry out with a loud voice, saying, Deliverance to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!THE THREAD
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with a clamor of praise; lift your hands to him, and bless his nature.Jeremiah’s “sacrifices of praise” is תּוֹדָה (todah, “thanksgiving”), the same Hebrew word Psalm 100:4 uses for “thanksgiving.” In Jeremiah it is carried into the house; in the psalm, todah accompanies entry through the gates.
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