What Does Jeremiah 27:1 Mean?
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
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
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,THE KEY
The word that reaches you is not detached information: *davar* can mean both speech and the matter that takes shape through it.
THE MEANING
A visible ruler can occupy the frame while the word reaches the person listening now. *Davar* is both speech and matter, so the arriving word addresses the reality in which you stand. Jehoiakim’s name carries “YHWH raises,” beside the word’s arrival to Jeremiah.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Visible office is not the only place where authority is at work: the word reaches Jeremiah, not only the king named in the verse.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; an utterance. The noun can also mean a matter, thing, or affair.
English makes a word sound like information, separate from what happens. Hebrew *davar* can name both what is spoken and the matter itself, joining address to the reality it touches.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The verb from the same root makes the word an act of speaking, not only a message as an object.
devarim: Words, matters, or affairs.
דְּבָרִים
The plural preserves the root’s range: words and the matters they concern share the same seed.
יְהוֹיָקִים
Yəhôyāqîm
GROWS FROM
קום
To rise or stand; in the name, “YHWH raises” or “YHWH establishes.”
“Jehoiakim” in this verse is Yəhôyāqîm. The king’s name carries a claim of being raised or established by YHWH. Beside it, the verse places the arriving word with Jeremiah, letting the name’s assertion and the word’s arrival sit together.
ALSO GROWS
qûm: To rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the basic action carried by the root within Jehoiakim’s name.
hēqîm: To raise or establish.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows the root’s sense of someone being raised or set in place, as the name expresses.
THE PATTERN
A word arrives in a concrete moment and addresses the person who receives it.
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,While Annas and Caiaphas were the chief priests, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.THE THREAD
And he bent you low, and made you hunger, and fed you with manna, which you had never perceived, nor had your fathers, so that he might make you perceive that humankind does not live by bread alone, but by every word that goes out from the mouth of the LORD does humankind live.Both verses use *davar*: here it arrives to Jeremiah, and there it names what proceeds from the LORD’s mouth and sustains life. The same root holds utterance and matter together, so the word that reaches a person carries consequence.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us