What Does Jeremiah 25:13 Mean?
And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.
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 bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.THE KEY
The Hebrew דָּבָר (davar, “word” or “matter”) can name both speech and an affair, so the words spoken here are also the matter brought upon the land.
THE MEANING
The reader meets a word that does not remain quotation: what is pronounced, written, and spoken through prophecy is brought to bear on the land and the nations named. The repeated “all” holds nothing back from the announcement or its reach.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A warning is only words on a page, so it can be ignored without consequence.
THE ROOT
וְהֵבֵאתִי
weheveti
GROWS FROM
ב־ו־א
b-w-ʾ
בּוֹא (boʾ) means “come,” “enter,” or “arrive”; in a causative form, הֵבִיא (hevi) means “bring” or “cause to come.”
English can make “bring” sound like transport, but this form comes from the root ב־ו־א (b-w-ʾ), “come” or “enter”: the words are caused to come upon the land. Their arrival is part of what the verb says.
ALSO GROWS
boʾ: Come, enter, arrive
בּוֹא
The root’s basic motion is arrival; the verse names the words as arriving upon the land.
hevi: Bring, cause to come
הֵבִיא
This causative form makes the arrival active: the words are brought to the place they address.
דְּבָרַי
devarai
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
דָּבַר (davar) means “speak” or “declare”; דָּבָר (davar) means “word” or “matter.”
English “word” can sound like detached speech, but דָּבָר (davar, “word” or “matter”) also names an affair or thing. The verse’s words are not presented as abstract talk: they are the matters brought upon the land.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: Spoke, declared
דִּבֵּר
The verb and the noun share a root, linking the spoken declaration to the “words” brought upon the land.
davar: Word, matter, affair
דָּבָר
The noun holds speech and matter together, making the message more than sound that passes.
נִבָּא
nibba
GROWS FROM
נ־ב־א
n-b-ʾ
נָבָא (naba) means “prophesy” or “speak as a prophet.”
“prophesied” in this verse is nibba. The verb belongs to the same family as נָבִיא (navi, “prophet”) and נְבוּאָה (nevu’ah, “prophecy”), naming Jeremiah’s speech as prophetic declaration. The verse says that declaration is against all the nations, holding the breadth and confrontation of its message in view.
ALSO GROWS
navi: Prophet
נָבִיא
The shared root connects Jeremiah’s act of speaking with the identity of a prophet.
nevu’ah: Prophecy
נְבוּאָה
The noun names the prophetic message that the verb describes as spoken.
THE PATTERN
God’s declared word reaches its appointed outcome, carrying from speech into action.
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should relent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not make it stand?Heaven and earth pass by, but my words do not pass by.THE THREAD
And the LORD said to me, You have seen well, for I keep watch over my word to do it.Jeremiah 1:12 uses דְּבָרִי (devari, “my word”), from דָּבָר (davar, “word” or “matter”), the same root as “my words” here. It pairs that word with God’s watching to perform, opening the sequence in Jeremiah 25:13: the words do not stay in the book; they are brought upon the land.
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