What Does Jeremiah 23:7 Mean?
Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when they will no longer say, The LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
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, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;THE KEY
God’s life is named through the act of bringing people up and out, yet even a defining deliverance can give way to a greater one.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks of a living God whose acts of deliverance become part of how people recognize and name that life. The remembered escape from Egypt remains true, while a new deliverance is coming into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that God can only be recognized through one past rescue gives way: the verse anticipates another act so defining that the old formula changes.
THE ROOT
הֶעֱלָה
heʿĕlāh
GROWS FROM
עלה
to go up, ascend
The Hebrew verb is causative: God caused the people to go up. English “brought up” carries the action, while the root also holds the image of ascent; deliverance is voiced as a change in direction and position.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: to go up, ascend
עָלָה
The root verb makes the upward movement within “brought up” audible.
ʿōlāh: an offering that rises, often rendered “burnt offering”
עֹלָה
This related word preserves the sense of something ascending, showing the upward image carried by the root.
חַי
ḥay
GROWS FROM
חיה
to live, be alive
“lives” in this verse is ḥay. The oath calls the LORD “living” and immediately names an act of bringing a people up. Life here is joined to what the living God does, not left as an abstract title.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāyāh: to live, remain alive
חָיָה
The verb gives the action beneath “liveth,” linking the oath to living activity.
ḥayyāh: a living creature
חַיָּה
This noun carries the same life-root into the realm of living beings, echoing the people whose story names the LORD as living.
THE PATTERN
The living God is recognized through deliverance that brings people out of bondage and into a new place.
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.Behold, I am making a new thing; now it sprouts; will you not perceive it? I will even lay a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the parched land.Who has brought us out of the authority of darkness and has moved us into the governance of the Son of his love.THE THREAD
But the LORD lives, who brought up and led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north land, and out of every land where I had driven them; and they shall settle upon their own ground.The same Hebrew root for “brought up” returns, while Egypt gives way to the north country and every place of scattering. The repeated root makes the shift audible: deliverance remains the defining action, and its reach expands.
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