What Does Jeremiah 26:2 Mean?
"Thus says the LORD. Stand in the court of the house of the LORD, and speak to all the cities of Judah, those who come to bow down in the house of the LORD. Speak all the words that I command you to speak to them. Shave away not a word.
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
Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’s house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word:THE KEY
The verse guards the whole message down to a single word: remove even one, and the entrusted speech has changed.
THE MEANING
The word meets you where worship and public speech come together, carrying a precise measure: everything commanded is spoken, down to the smallest word. Nothing is hidden from the gathered people, and nothing is trimmed away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a message stays intact after its difficult words are removed: here, subtraction changes the message.
THE ROOT
תִּגְרַע
tigraʿ
GROWS FROM
גרע
g-r-ʿ
to diminish, withdraw, or take away
“shave away” in this verse is tigraʿ. The root appears in forms for something being diminished or held back. Here the command reaches the smallest unit of the message: not only its broad sense, but even one word.
ALSO GROWS
garaʿ: diminish, take away
גָּרַע
This form makes the command concrete: diminishing means taking something from what has been given.
nigraʿ: be diminished, be held back
נִגְרַע
In Numbers 9:7 this form describes being kept back from an offering; the same root shows what is missing when something is withheld.
דָּבָר
davar
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
to speak; a spoken word or matter
The passage’s “all the words” and “a word” belong to the same Hebrew family as “to speak.” Hebrew keeps the act of speaking, the message, and each word within one root; English can make them feel like separate things.
ALSO GROWS
devarim: words, matters
דְּבָרִים
This is the plural used for “all the words”; the final singular “a word” belongs to the same family, linking the whole message to each part.
ledabber: to speak
לְדַבֵּר
This is the infinitive used for what Jeremiah is commanded to do; the speech and the words spoken share the same root.
THE PATTERN
A word entrusted for speaking remains whole when nothing is added to it or taken away.
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor shave anything away from it, that you may guard the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you, and you be found a liar.And if anyone takes away from the words of the scroll of this prophecy, God will take away his portion from the tree of life and from the set-apart city, and from the things written in this scroll.THE THREAD
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor shave anything away from it, that you may guard the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.The Hebrew word translated “diminish” comes from the same root, גרע (g-r-ʿ), in both verses. Deuteronomy pairs taking away with adding, revealing that keeping the word whole means neither subtracting from it nor expanding it.
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