What Does Jeremiah 2:29 Mean?
Why will you contend with me? You have all broken away from me, says 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
Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD.THE KEY
The whole people plead their case while the verse names the whole people as already in rebellion.
THE MEANING
The verse places the appeal and the rupture in the same frame: everyone pleads with God, and everyone stands accused of rebellion against him. Its force is direct, the appeal does not erase the break being named.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Making a case for innocence does not itself prove innocence; the verse names the rebellion beneath the argument.
THE ROOT
פְּשַׁעְתֶּם
pəshaʿtem
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-š-ʿ
Rebel; break away.
The word translated “transgressed” carries the sense of rebellion, a breaking away. The verse makes that rupture collective: “all of you” have broken away against God.
ALSO GROWS
pāshaʿ: To rebel.
פָּשַׁע
The verb names an act of breaking away, giving “transgressed” the force of rebellion.
peshaʿ: Rebellion; a breaking away.
פֶּשַׁע
This related noun makes the rupture explicit in the verse’s accusation.
תָּרִיבוּ
tārîvû
GROWS FROM
ריב
r-y-b
Contend; bring a dispute.
“contend” in this verse is tārîvû. The verb carries the sense of contention, so the question sounds like a dispute before God, not merely a quiet request to be heard. The same root returns in verse 35, where God says, “I will plead with thee,” making the dispute reciprocal.
ALSO GROWS
rîv: Dispute; controversy.
רִיב
The noun shows the conflict contained within the act translated “plead.”
merîvāh: Quarrel; strife.
מְרִיבָה
This branch makes the contentious edge of the dispute audible.
THE PATTERN
God’s dispute exposes what human claims cannot erase.
Yet you say, Because I am clean, surely the burning of his anger has turned from me. Behold, I will judge you, because you say, I have not missed the mark.Hear and respond to the word of the LORD, you children of Israel, for the LORD has a quarrel with the ones who settle in the land, because there is no truth, nor faithful love, nor knowledge of God in the land.Now we know that whatever the instruction says, it speaks to those under the instruction, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may come under the verdict of God.THE THREAD
Yet you say, Because I am clean, surely the burning of his anger has turned from me. Behold, I will judge you, because you say, I have not missed the mark.The Hebrew root ריב (rîv, contend or dispute) appears in “plead” in both verses. Verse 35 sharpens the connection: the claim “I have not sinned” is precisely where the dispute is exposed.
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