What Does Jeremiah 27:20 Mean?
Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take, when he carried away into exile Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the mighty ones of Judah and Jerusalem.
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
Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem;THE KEY
The verse makes absence count: what the conqueror did not take belongs to the record as much as those he carried away.
THE MEANING
The verse holds two realities together: Jeconiah and Judah’s nobles are carried from Jerusalem to Babylon, and the king’s taking has a limit. Its opening “took not” makes what remains part of the account, so removal does not become a claim that everything is gone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a conquering power takes everything: the sentence remembers what remains outside its seizure.
THE ROOT
בְּהַגְלוֹתוֹ
behaglotô
GROWS FROM
גלה
To uncover or expose; in the Hiphil, to cause someone to go into exile or deport them.
“carried away into exile” in this verse is behaglotô. English describes the captives’ condition, while the Hebrew form names the ruler’s act of exiling them. The same root גלה (galah, to uncover or reveal) also carries the sense of exposure, so exile registers as removal from shelter as well as place.
ALSO GROWS
galah: Uncover, reveal.
גָּלָה
This form shows the root’s uncovering sense, adding exposure to the removal expressed by exile.
higlah: He exiled or deported.
הִגְלָה
This Hiphil form belongs to the same causative family as the verse’s phrase, where someone is made to go into exile.
לְקָחָם
leqacham
GROWS FROM
לקח
To take, receive, or seize.
“took not” in this verse is leqacham. The negation marks the edge of the king’s seizure rather than erasing the act of taking. The clause preserves a distinction between those carried away and the things that remain, making the limit part of the record.
ALSO GROWS
laqach: To take or receive.
לָקַח
The base verb names the action whose reach the phrase “took not” limits.
leqichah: Taking or receiving.
לְקִיחָה
This noun keeps the taking visible as a discrete act, clarifying that the verse records both seizure and its boundary.
THE PATTERN
The account of loss marks its limits by naming what remains.
For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the stands, and concerning the remnant of the vessels left in this city,But the chief of the slaughterers left some of the emptied ones of the land to be vinedressers and tillers.Pursued, but not left behind; thrown down, but not perishing.THE THREAD
Take the millstones and grind meal. Uncover your locks, bare your leg, uncover your thigh, and cross over the rivers.Both verses use גלה (galah, uncover or reveal): Jeremiah uses it in the Hiphil for deporting Jeconiah, while Isaiah uses it for uncovering. The shared root holds exile and exposure together, showing removal as separation from place and protection.
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