What Does Jeremiah 2:3 Mean?
Israel was set apart to the LORD, the first of what he brought in; all who devour him shall bear guilt; evil shall come upon them, 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
Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD.THE KEY
Israel’s firstfruits status turns devouring into trespass against the LORD’s consecrated portion.
THE MEANING
Here, you see Israel named as the LORD’s own consecrated first yield; those who consume what belongs to God incur guilt, and evil comes upon the devourers. The boundary around the consecrated is real: it is not ownerless prey.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that what is vulnerable or set apart can be consumed without consequence. It names predatory taking as guilt.
THE ROOT
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
To be set apart or consecrated.
“set apart” in this verse is qodesh. The verse names Israel as the LORD’s own consecrated portion, then sharpens that belonging with the image of the first yield. Qodesh carries more than an abstract quality: it marks what is claimed for sacred use.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; holy.
קָדוֹשׁ
The same root describes the character of what belongs to God, illuminating Israel’s status as the LORD’s portion.
miqdash: Sanctuary; consecrated place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary is a place marked by the same consecration that the verse attributes to Israel.
רֵאשִׁית תְּבוּאָתוֹ
reshit tevuato
GROWS FROM
ראש
Head, chief, first.
“the first of what he brought in” in this verse is reshit tevuato. Israel is called the reshit, the first portion, of the LORD’s produce. The root’s sense of head and first connects the first yield to the larger harvest whose belonging it represents.
ALSO GROWS
rosh: Head; chief.
רֹאשׁ
The head is the leading part, echoing the first portion’s representative place in the yield.
rishon: First; foremost.
רִאשׁוֹן
This branch makes the temporal sense of the first portion explicit: it comes at the head of what follows.
יֶאְשָׁמוּ
ye’eshāmu
GROWS FROM
אשם
To incur guilt or be liable.
“shall bear guilt” in this verse is ye’eshāmu. The verb says the devourers become liable; the harm is not merely an offense that causes displeasure. Consuming what is consecrated places the devourer under guilt before God.
ALSO GROWS
ashem: Guilty; liable.
אָשֵׁם
This adjective names the state the devourers enter in the verse.
asham: Guilt; guilt offering.
אָשָׁם
The related noun can name both the liability and its associated offering, showing the weight carried by the verb.
THE PATTERN
The first yield is set apart to God, and its holiness declares the belonging of the whole yield.
The first of the first-ripened of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a kid in his mother's milk.Give the LORD weight with your wealth, and with the first of all your yield.And if the first portion is set apart, so is the lump. And if the root is set apart, so are the branches.THE THREAD
Give the LORD weight with your wealth, and with the first of all your yield.Jeremiah’s רֵאשִׁית (reshit, first portion) is the same word Proverbs uses for “firstfruits.” The shared word makes Israel itself the LORD’s first portion, so devouring Israel is consuming what has already been claimed for God.
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