What Does Jeremiah 20:6 Mean?
And you, Pashur, and all who settle in your house shall go into captivity. You shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die and be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.
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 thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.THE KEY
The prophet and those who love him are carried into the same exile: false speech gives its speaker no exemption from the fate it conceals.
THE MEANING
Pashhur and everyone in his house go into captivity; Babylon is where he and the people who love him die and are buried. The verse places the speaker and those who heard his lies under one outcome, with no distance between the false voice and its consequence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A prophetic voice and the affection of its circle cannot shield the speaker from the consequence of speaking lies.
THE ROOT
בַּשֶּׁבִי
ba-shevi
GROWS FROM
ש־ב־ה
sh-b-h
To take captive, carry away; שְׁבִי (shevi) names the resulting captivity.
“captivity” in this verse is ba-shevi. The Hebrew root carries the sense of being taken, not simply traveling to another place. Pashhur’s fate is imposed exile: the speaker is swept into the condition his lies cannot keep him outside.
ALSO GROWS
shavah: To take captive, carry away
שָׁבָה
The verb behind captivity makes the force of the outcome explicit: someone is taken.
shevi: Captivity, captive state
שְׁבִי
This noun names the condition produced by being taken, the state Pashhur and his household enter.
אֹהֲבֶיךָ
ohavekha
GROWS FROM
א־ה־ב
ʾ-h-b
To love; the word here means those who love you.
The Hebrew names Pashhur’s circle by their love for him, a shade the English word friends does not make explicit. His fate reaches the people emotionally tied to him, not merely a distant audience.
ALSO GROWS
ahav: To love
אָהַב
This verb identifies the people in the verse through their affection for Pashhur.
ahavah: Love, affection
אַהֲבָה
This noun names the bond that makes the shared fate intimate.
THE PATTERN
False speech cannot place its speaker beyond the consequences it brings into view for others.
But the prophet, who boils over to speak a word in my nature, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the nature of other gods, that one dies.A false witness does not come away clear, and the one who breathes out lies does not slip free.But there are also false prophets among the people, as there are false teachers among you, who slip in factions of perishing, denying the Master who bought them, and bringing swift perishing upon themselves.THE THREAD
The breath shall graze upon all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity. Surely then you shall be ashamed and brought low for all your evil.Jeremiah 22:22 uses the same שְׁבִי (shevi, captivity) from שָׁבָה (shavah, take captive) for those carried away with their leaders. The shared root keeps exile concrete: people are taken, and the one at the center of a circle does not stand outside its fate.
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