What Does Jeremiah 26:12 Mean?
Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and to all the people, saying, "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city, all the words that you have heard."
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
Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.THE KEY
The word “sent” carries both dispatch and release: Jeremiah’s hard message is released into the very house and city it confronts.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now of a hard word brought into the open: Jeremiah names the LORD as the one who sent him, and says the words are against the house and city. Hearing the words does not blunt their force; what has been heard still confronts the people and the structures around them. The speaker’s authority rests in being sent, while the message remains pointed directly at its targets.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the assumption that a hard word is only the speaker’s personal hostility: Jeremiah says he is sent, while the message still names the house and city as its targets.
THE ROOT
שְׁלָחַנִי
shelachani
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send forth, dispatch, or release.
“sent” in this verse is shelachani. The root שׁלח carries the sense of sending forth and releasing. Here, Jeremiah’s words are released into public hearing, directed at the very house and city they expose.
ALSO GROWS
shillaḥ: Sent away, released, or dismissed.
שִׁלַּח
This form makes the root’s release sense clear; in Exodus 5:1, the command “Let my people go” uses this root.
mishloach: A sending or dispatch.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
This noun keeps the focus on something sent forth, illuminating Jeremiah’s words as a message dispatched into the city.
לְהִנָּבֵא
lehinave
GROWS FROM
נבא
To speak or proclaim as a prophet.
“prophesy” in this verse is lehinave. This verb names prophetic speaking, while its related words name both the speaker and the utterance. The verse frames Jeremiah’s speech as proclamation, not merely prediction.
ALSO GROWS
navi: Prophet.
נָבִיא
The related noun names the speaker whose role is to carry a proclamation.
nevuah: Prophecy or prophetic utterance.
נְבוּאָה
This branch names the spoken message itself, linking Jeremiah’s act of speaking to the words the people have heard.
THE PATTERN
A sent speaker carries a message whose authority precedes the speaker and whose words confront their hearers.
But the LORD said to me, Do not say, I am a youth, for to all that I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.Then Jesus said to them again, Wholeness be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.THE THREAD
But the LORD said to me, Do not say, I am a youth, for to all that I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.Jeremiah 1:7 uses the same שׁלח root for the one who sends Jeremiah, then binds that sending to the words he must speak. In 26:12, Jeremiah identifies that same source as he delivers the message before the people.
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