What Does Jeremiah 26:3 Mean?
Perhaps they will hear and respond, and each man will turn from his evil way, and I will relent of the harm I plan to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.
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
If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.THE KEY
The same Hebrew word names both the people’s wrongdoing and the calamity God intends, tying their harmful path to a consequence that can still be withdrawn.
THE MEANING
You stand within a live possibility: a harmful way can be left, and the harm set against it can be withheld. The repeated Hebrew word raʿah carries both wrongdoing and calamity, while the final verb describes God relenting from the planned harm.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that threatened harm is fixed once announced: the verse leaves room for the outcome to change when the people turn from their destructive way.
THE ROOT
רָעָה
raʿah
GROWS FROM
ר־ע־ע
r-ʿ-ʿ
To be bad or harmful; its forms can refer to moral evil, trouble, or calamity.
The repeated word family names the people’s evil way and the calamity God plans. The repetition draws wrongdoing and its threatened consequence into the same field of meaning, while the verse still distinguishes them by context.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: Bad or evil.
רַע
This adjective describes the harmful way the people are to leave.
raʿah: Evil, trouble, or calamity.
רָעָה
This form names both the evil in their deeds and the harm God plans to bring.
נִחַמְתִּי
niḥamti from naḥam
GROWS FROM
נ־ח־ם
n-ḥ-m
A Hebrew root with forms meaning to relent or regret, and to comfort or console.
“relent” in this verse is niḥamti from naḥam. Here the verb describes God relenting from a planned calamity. The same root also has forms for comforting, connecting a changed course with relief from distress without making the two meanings identical.
ALSO GROWS
niḥam: Relent or change course.
נִחַם
This is the sense of the verb describing God’s response in the verse.
niḥēm: Comfort or console.
נִחֵם
This related form shows the root’s connection with easing distress.
שׁוּב
shuv
GROWS FROM
ש־ו־ב
sh-w-b
To turn back or return.
The people’s turn is expressed through a root that carries the sense of returning. The change is a departure from the harmful way they are on, not an addition to it.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn back or return.
שׁוּב
This is the root behind the people’s turning from their evil way.
teshuvah: Return or turning.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This related form makes the return-sense of the root visible in a noun.
THE PATTERN
Turning from a destructive course leaves the future open to a changed outcome.
And God saw their deeds, because they turned back from their harmful way; and God relented from the harm he had spoken to do to them, and he did not do it.Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each according to his ways, says the Lord LORD. Turn, and turn yourselves from all your rebellions; so crookedness shall not be your stumbling block.Turn around, then, and turn back, so that your shortcomings may be wiped away, and the times of breathing again may come from the face of the LORD.THE THREAD
And God saw their deeds, because they turned back from their harmful way; and God relented from the harm he had spoken to do to them, and he did not do it.Jonah repeats the same sequence: the people turn (shuv) from their evil way, and God relents (naḥam) from the evil he planned. The repeated raʿah word family joins their wrongdoing to the threatened calamity, and “he did it not” makes the changed outcome explicit.
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