What Does Jeremiah 19:14 Mean?
Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy. He stood in the court of the LORD's house, and he said to all the people.
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
Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’s house; and said to all the people,THE KEY
The word sent from Tophet moves into the court, carrying what it confronts into the hearing of the whole people.
THE MEANING
A word sent into a hard place does not stay there; it reaches the shared center and is spoken before everyone. What comes from Tophet takes its place in the court of the LORD’s house, moving the matter into common hearing.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what is confronted in a place of devastation can be kept outside the shared center and left unheard.
THE ROOT
שְׁלָחוֹ
shelāḥô
GROWS FROM
שלח
sh-l-ḥ
To send forth, let go, or release.
English “sent” can sound like simple travel, but שָׁלַח (shalach, to send forth or release) also carries the movement of letting something go. Here that movement carries the word from Tophet into the court, where it can be heard by all.
ALSO GROWS
shillach: Sent away; released.
שִׁלַּח
This form shows the root’s sense of sending away, illuminating how the word leaves the place from which Jeremiah comes.
Shiloach: Sent forth; Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
John 9:7 interprets Siloam as “Sent,” joining this root’s movement with a place where sight is restored.
THE PATTERN
A word sent forth carries its purpose from its source into the hearing or work it is sent to reach.
But the LORD said to me, Do not say, I am a youth, for to all that I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.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.And how will they herald unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!THE THREAD
And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.Siloam is explicitly interpreted as “Sent,” echoing שָׁלַח (shalach, to send forth or release), the root behind “had sent” in Jeremiah. The sent word enters the court and becomes public hearing; at Siloam, the movement toward what is sent forth ends with sight.
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