What Does Jeremiah 23:12 Mean?
Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery paths in the darkness; they shall be driven and fall there, for I will bring harm upon them, the year of their visitation, 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 their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.THE KEY
What feels like easy footing may be the very smoothness that makes the fall possible.
THE MEANING
Your way can feel smooth while its footing is failing; darkness hides the danger, and being driven onward does not make the path sound. The LORD’s visitation comes as evil upon them, the appointed reckoning when the hidden danger of that way issues in a fall.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that easy movement proves safety: a person can be propelled along a path whose smoothness hides the fall.
THE ROOT
מַחְלַקְלַקּוֹת
maḥălaqlaqqōṯ
GROWS FROM
חלק
ḥ-l-q
To be smooth or slippery.
“slippery ways” in this verse is maḥălaqlaqqōṯ. The Hebrew word names slick places, and this root’s branches also describe smooth, flattering speech. The word-family lets you hear how what feels smooth to the ear can also be perilous underfoot.
ALSO GROWS
ḥālāq: Smooth.
חָלָק
This is the basic quality behind the slippery footing in the verse.
ḥălāqōṯ: Smooth things; flattering words.
חֲלָקוֹת
The same smoothness that can make words appealing can make a path treacherous.
פְּקֻדָּתָם
pequddātām
GROWS FROM
פקד
p-q-d
To attend to, visit, muster, or appoint.
The root of “visitation” also carries the sense of attending to, mustering, and appointing. Here, “the year of their visitation” is the appointed reckoning, and the verse names its result plainly: evil comes upon them.
ALSO GROWS
pāqad: To attend to, visit, or muster.
פָּקַד
This verb shows that visitation involves attention directed toward someone.
mifqād: A muster or numbering.
מִפְקָד
The related word carries the sense of a count or inspection, sharpening the image of an appointed reckoning.
pāqîd: An appointed officer or overseer.
פָּקִיד
This branch carries the sense of an assigned charge, echoing the verse’s appointed time of visitation.
THE PATTERN
When guidance travels in darkness and the ground is slick, movement can carry people toward a fall they cannot see.
Surely in smooth places you set them; you make them fall into ruin.The way of the restless is like darkness; they do not perceive what they stumble over.Let them go. They are blind guides of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.THE THREAD
Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the messenger of the LORD pursue them.Psalm 35:6 uses the same Hebrew word-family, rooted in חלק (ḥ-l-q, smooth), for the slippery path. The echo sharpens the image: darkness hides the danger, while smoothness takes away secure footing.
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