What Does Jeremiah 23:30 Mean?
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words, each one from his neighbor.
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, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.THE KEY
The strange charge is that the LORD’s words can be stolen by copying one another, repetition does not make their source genuine.
THE MEANING
The verse places the LORD against prophets who take his words from one another. A phrase may sound like revelation while being severed from the one whose authority it carries. This accusation speaks now wherever borrowed words are passed off as a fresh word from God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that repeated religious language proves divine origin; here repetition itself can be the path by which the words are stolen.
THE ROOT
מְגַנְּבֵי
megannəvei
GROWS FROM
גנב
ganav
To steal, take secretly.
“steal” in this verse is megannəvei. The form here depicts those stealing, an ongoing plural action; the words pass from one prophet to another. The root joins the thief to the theft, revealing that repetition can carry the act of taking along with the words.
ALSO GROWS
gannav: thief
גַּנָּב
The thief names the agent, showing that this root describes a taker, not a neutral transmitter.
genevah: theft
גְּנֵבָה
The noun names the act itself, so the language treats borrowed prophetic speech as taking.
דְּבָרַי
devarai
GROWS FROM
דבר
davar
To speak, say; the related noun means word or matter.
The verse calls them the LORD’s words, and this word family holds speech and the spoken matter together. English can make words sound like portable phrases; Hebrew keeps their force linked to the speaker and what is said.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: he spoke
דִּבֵּר
The verb shows the root as the act of speaking, tying prophetic words to a living speaker.
davar: word; matter, thing
דָּבָר
The noun can name an utterance and the matter at hand, so the LORD’s words are consequential speech rather than detachable phrases.
THE PATTERN
Speech that claims divine authority is measured by its source; invented, borrowed, or enlarged words cannot acquire that authority through repetition.
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.Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar.And in grasping for more, they trade you with molded words. Their judgment from of old does not idle, and their perishing does not nod.THE THREAD
Is not my word like fire? says the LORD; and like a hammer that shatters the rock?The same Hebrew word דָּבָר (davar, meaning word or matter) appears in both verses. In 23:29 the LORD’s word is fire and a hammer that breaks rock; the theft in 23:30 therefore reaches beyond repeating a phrase to claiming speech whose source is the LORD.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us