What Does Jeremiah 21:8 Mean?
And to this people you shall say, Thus says the LORD. Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
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 unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.THE KEY
The verse turns life and death from abstract outcomes into routes already placed before your feet.
THE MEANING
The words meet you as two distinct ways, and their ends are named before a step is taken. Life is a path set in front of you, just as death is. The verse leaves the distinction stark rather than pretending every route arrives at the same place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the path before you has no bearing on where you arrive.
THE ROOT
דֶּרֶךְ
derek
GROWS FROM
דָּרַךְ
dārak
to tread, step, or walk
“way” in this verse is derek. Derek is more than a direction in the abstract: it is a track made by treading. The verse places life and death on routes that can be walked, joining each named end to the steps that carry you there.
ALSO GROWS
dārak: to tread or step
דָּרַךְ
The verb shows the bodily action beneath a way: a route is something trodden.
midrākh: a place trodden, a footstep
מִדְרָךְ
This branch makes the path tangible as ground marked by feet.
חַיִּים
chayyim
GROWS FROM
חָיָה
chayah
to live, be alive
Chayyim names living vitality, not merely an idea about existence. Paired with derek, life is presented as a way that can be entered and walked.
ALSO GROWS
chai: living, alive
חַי
The adjective shows life as a present condition, not only a future outcome.
chayah: to live, be alive
חָיָה
The verb connects life with the ongoing reality of living.
מָוֶת
mavet
GROWS FROM
מוּת
mût
to die
“death” in this verse is mavet. Mavet is not left as a distant abstraction; the verse calls it a way, a route with a direction. Beside chayyim, it makes the distinction between the two paths unmistakable.
ALSO GROWS
mût: to die
מוּת
The verb names the outcome that gives the way of death its force.
mēt: dead, deceased
מֵת
This form names the state at the end of the route.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents paths by the destinations they carry, even when a path’s appearance can mislead.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.There is a way straight before a man, but its latter end is the ways of death.For narrow is the gate, and pressed in is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it.THE THREAD
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live.The same Hebrew words for life, חַיִּים, and death, מָוֶת, appear alongside the phrase “set before you.” Jeremiah makes the path explicit, showing these named outcomes as ways placed in front of your feet.
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