What Does Jeremiah 24:7 Mean?
And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall turn back to me with their whole heart.
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 I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.THE KEY
The whole-hearted return begins with the heart God gives for knowing him.
THE MEANING
God gives you a heart to know him as the LORD; this knowing is a living relationship that turns your whole inner self toward him. You are his people, and he is your God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that you must make your heart whole before it can know God is reversed here: the heart that knows is itself given.
THE ROOT
לֵב
lev
GROWS FROM
לבב
l-b-b
Heart, the inward person; the center of thought, desire, and will.
The verse opens with a heart given for knowing and closes with their heart turned wholly toward God. The repeated word shows the return as the completion of the inward movement that begins with God’s gift, not merely a surge of feeling.
ALSO GROWS
lev: Heart; inner center
לֵב
This is the inward center God gives for knowing him.
levav: Heart; mind; inner person
לֵבָב
This form underlies “their whole heart,” naming the inner self that turns toward God.
לָדַעַת
lada'at
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive.
“know me” in this verse is lada'at. The verse speaks of knowing God himself, not merely holding a fact about him. The heart receives a relational recognition that shapes belonging and return.
ALSO GROWS
yada: To know; recognize
יָדַע
This is the verb used for knowing the LORD in the verse.
da'at: Knowledge; understanding
דַּעַת
This related noun shows knowledge as something held within, while the verse’s “know me” makes that knowledge personal.
יָשֻׁבוּ
yashuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
sh-w-b
To turn back or return.
“turn back” in this verse is yashuvu. Their return is a turning toward God with the whole heart. Set beside the heart God gives, the word reveals return as an inward movement, not just a change of location.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: To turn back; return
שׁוּב
This is the root of “they shall return,” the movement the verse describes.
teshuvah: Return; turning; answer
תְּשׁוּבָה
This related form can mean a return or an answer, echoing the heart’s response to the knowing God gives.
heshiv: To bring back; restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form reveals the restoring side of return: what turns back is also brought back.
THE PATTERN
God’s inward gift precedes and enables the whole-person response.
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your living soul, that you may live.A new heart I will give you, and a new breath I will set within you. I will take the stone heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for the sake of his good pleasure.THE THREAD
And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and his brother, saying, Perceive the LORD, for they shall all perceive me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will release their crookedness, and their shortcomings I will remember no more.Both verses use יָדַע (yada, to know) for knowing the LORD, so the heart God gives here opens into the shared knowing described in Jeremiah 31. That knowing stands beside God’s release of crookedness and refusal to remember their missing, showing relationship as both recognition and release.
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