What Does Jeremiah 23:15 Mean?
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; behold, I will make them eat wormwood, and make them drink the waters of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem the soiling has gone out into all the land.
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
Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.THE KEY
The named center of wholeness becomes a source of pollution: what its prophets send out reaches the whole land, and bitterness becomes their own portion.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the reader now: profaneness issues from Jerusalem’s prophets and reaches the whole land. The prophets are made to consume wormwood and gall, so the corruption they release returns as bitter portion. Jerusalem bears a name associated with wholeness, yet its message carries pollution outward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred place or trusted title guarantees that what comes from it is clean.
THE ROOT
חֲנֻפָּה
ḥănuppāh
GROWS FROM
חנף
ḥ-n-p
To be profane, godless, or polluted.
“soiling” in this verse is ḥănuppāh. This word names a polluted source whose influence moves outward into the land. The root connects profaneness with pollution, so the damage is not contained in the prophets’ private state; it spreads through what comes from them.
ALSO GROWS
ḥānēp̄: Profane or godless.
חָנֵף
This branch describes the character of the source from which profaneness goes forth.
ḥānap̄: To act profanely or pollute.
חָנַף
This verbal branch makes the profaneness an active contamination that reaches beyond its source.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete; the name carries the association of shalom, wholeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The name Yerushalayim carries the shalom association of wholeness. The verse sets that nature against what issues from its prophets: profaneness flows from the place associated with wholeness and spreads through the land.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness association carried in the city’s name, making the pollution that goes forth a sharp rupture.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes the contrast plain: the name points toward wholeness while the message carries pollution.
מַאֲכִיל
maʾăḵîl
GROWS FROM
אכל
ʾ-k-l
To eat or consume; in this form, to cause someone to eat.
“feed” in this verse is maʾăḵîl. The Hebrew verb is causative: the prophets are made to consume the wormwood. Their consequence is not left abstract; the bitterness is placed before them as food and drink.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāḵal: To eat or consume.
אָכַל
The root beneath “feed” is the act of eating, so the judgment is experienced through what the prophets themselves consume.
maʾăḵāl: Food; something eaten.
מַאֲכָל
This branch brings the image into focus: what is given to them becomes their portion.
THE PATTERN
What corrupt guides send outward spreads through the people and returns as consequence.
The prophets prophesy in lies, and the priests rule under their hands, and my people love it so. And what will you do at its end?Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who make my people wander, who bite with their teeth and cry out, Wholeness. And against whoever does not set something into their mouths, they set apart war.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
Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel. Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them waters of gall to drink.Jeremiah 9:15 repeats the wormwood-and-gall image and uses the root אכל (ʾāḵal, “eat or consume”) in “feed.” Read beside 23:15, the bitter portion reaches the people as well as the prophets from whom the profaneness goes forth.
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