What Does Jeremiah 26:15 Mean?
But perceive this for certain, that if you put me to death, you will surely set clean blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon those who settle in it, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.
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
But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.THE KEY
The doubled “know” says the word in your ears becomes knowledge through the blood on your hands if you silence its messenger.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s messenger speaks this word into your ears, so the warning is already before you. If you kill him, his innocent blood becomes a burden on you, your city, and its inhabitants. The repeated “know” makes the consequence certain: violence does not erase the message; it makes its cost yours.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that silencing the messenger can erase the word or keep the cost of innocent blood from reaching you and your community.
THE ROOT
יָדֹעַ תֵּדְעוּ
yādōaʿ tēdʿû
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
Know, perceive, recognize; often knowledge gained through acquaintance or encounter.
“perceive” in this verse is yādōaʿ tēdʿû. Hebrew stacks the infinitive absolute and finite verb from the same root: literally, “knowing, you will know.” The KJV’s “for certain” preserves the emphasis while the repeated root disappears; the warning concerns recognition that comes with its consequence, not just information heard.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, perception
דַּעַת
This noun grows the same knowing root into what is recognized, tying the warning to something the hearers come to know.
mōdaʿ: Acquaintance, kinsman
מֹדָע
This related word retains the root’s relational range, showing that knowing can concern a person, not only a fact.
שְׁלָחַנִי
shelachani
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ח
sh-l-ḥ
Send forth, release, let go.
The form means “he sent me,” naming Jeremiah’s speech as a commission from the LORD. The root also carries the sense of release, so the sent word is let loose into the hearers’ ears; killing its messenger does not recall it.
ALSO GROWS
shallach: Send away, release, let go
שַׁלַּח
The same root appears in the command “Let my people go” (Exodus 9:1), where sending means releasing people from a hold.
Shiloach: Sent; the name behind Siloam
שִׁלֹחַ
John 9:7 explicitly glosses Siloam as “Sent,” joining this root’s sending language to water through which sight is restored.
נָקִי
naqî
GROWS FROM
נ־ק־ה
n-q-h
Be clean, clear, or free of guilt.
“clean” in this verse is naqî. The blood is called naqî, “innocent” or “clear,” from the same family as clearing someone of guilt. Shedding it reverses that status: the blood is clear of guilt, while guilt falls upon the killers and their whole city.
ALSO GROWS
naqî: Clean, innocent, free of guilt
נָקִי
This is the word used for the blood, presenting the victim as clear of culpability.
naqqēh: Clear, acquit
נַקֵּה
This form appears in Exodus 34:7 in the phrase about not clearing the guilty, showing how the root connects innocence with the question of who remains accountable.
THE PATTERN
A word delivered through a human messenger makes both the messenger and the hearer accountable for what they do with it.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am; send me.When I say to the wicked, You shall surely die; and you do not warn him, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to keep his living soul alive; that same wicked man shall die in his crookedness; but his blood I will seek from your hand.The one who sets me aside and does not take in my words has the one who judges him. That same word I have spoken will judge him in the last day.THE THREAD
And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.Siloam reflects Hebrew שִׁלֹחַ (Shiloach, “Sent”), from the same שלח (shalach, “send, release”) root behind “the LORD hath sent me.” The sent word reaches ears here; in John, the pool called “Sent” becomes the place where sight is restored.
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