What Does Jeremiah 23:34 Mean?
And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who say, The burden of the LORD, I will count against that man and his house.
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 as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house.THE KEY
“The burden of the LORD” names a weight someone claims to carry, and this verse places the claimant and his house under its weight.
THE MEANING
The verse places prophet, priest, and people under the same scrutiny: invoking the LORD’s burden does not shield the speaker from judgment. The consequence named here reaches both the person and the household.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A sacred title or formula makes a claim immune from scrutiny.
THE ROOT
מַשָּׂא
massa
GROWS FROM
נשׂא
nasa
to lift, carry, or bear
מַשָּׂא (massa, “burden” or “oracle”) holds a carried weight and a spoken message together. Here, that weight does not certify divine origin: the person claiming to bear it becomes answerable for the claim.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: to lift, carry, or bear
נָשָׂא
This verb is the root’s basic sense: a burden is something carried, and the verse turns attention to the one claiming to carry the LORD’s message.
nasi: prince or leader; one raised up
נָשִׂיא
The word for a leader also grows from the sense of being lifted up, linking carried weight with the status someone holds.
THE PATTERN
A claim to speak with divine authority leaves its speaker answerable to God.
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.Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your nature, and by it throw out demons, and in it do many works of strength? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; withdraw from me, you who live without boundary.My brothers, do not become many teachers, knowing that we shall receive a greater judgment.THE THREAD
The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah son of Amoz saw.The same Hebrew noun מַשָּׂא (massa, “burden” or “oracle”) names the prophetic utterance here. Its use in both verses joins the weight of a message to the words someone claims to carry; in Jeremiah, the phrase itself does not shield its speaker.
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