What Does Jeremiah 26:14 Mean?
As for me, here I am, in your hand. Do to me what is good and straight in your eyes.
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
As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you.THE KEY
The Hebrew says “good and straight” and places that measure “in your eyes”, the verdict belongs to the people holding power.
THE MEANING
When you are inside another person’s power, this verse gives the vulnerability a clear voice. It leaves the decision and its measure visible: what seems good and straight in their eyes.
THE ROOT
כַּיָּשָׁר
ka-yashar
GROWS FROM
ישר
To be straight, level, or upright.
The KJV’s “meet” can sound like merely suitable, while yashar means straight or upright; the phrase is “good and straight in your eyes.” That keeps the standard inside their sight: the speaker names not only their power over him but the judgment by which they act.
ALSO GROWS
yosher: Uprightness, integrity.
יֹשֶׁר
This noun makes clear that the same root names the quality of being straight or upright.
yesharim: Upright ones.
יְשָׁרִים
The root can describe people as upright; here, it supplies a measure for the action being judged.
כַּטּוֹב
ka-tov
GROWS FROM
טוב
Good, beneficial, or pleasant.
Tov holds goodness and benefit together, and here it is paired with straightness. The line exposes what the holders themselves count as both good and right.
ALSO GROWS
tov: Good, pleasant, beneficial.
טוֹב
This is the word translated “good,” one part of the judgment the speaker names.
tovah: Goodness or benefit.
טוֹבָה
This form keeps the sense of benefit visible alongside yashar’s sense of uprightness.
THE PATTERN
When a person is placed in another’s hand, that holder’s will determines what happens next.
But Abram said to Sarai, Behold, your handmaid is in your hand. Do to her what is good in your eyes. And when Sarai bent her low, she fled from her face.Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand, for the king is not able to do anything against you.And while they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be handed over into human hands.THE THREAD
And you shall do what is straight and good in the eyes of the LORD, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and take hold of the good land which the LORD swore to your fathers.The Hebrew pair yashar and tov appears here too, translated “right and good.” Jeremiah locates those measures in his hearers’ eyes; this verse locates them in the sight of the LORD, making whose judgment counts part of the revelation.
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