What Does Jeremiah 29:20 Mean?
So hear and respond to the word of the LORD, all you exiles, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon.
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
Hear ye therefore the word of the LORD, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon:THE KEY
The Hebrew verb שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release) names a sending whose destination is exile, and its wider range does not erase the displacement.
THE MEANING
The word reaches you even in a place of displacement; distance from what feels like home does not put you beyond its address. The command to hear stands beside the stark naming of Babylon, holding contact and exile together without making exile gentle.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being far from the place of belonging means the LORD’s word cannot reach you.
THE ROOT
שִׁלַּחְתִּי
shillaḥtî
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, dispatch, or send away; in some uses, release or let go.
The clause places the people sent between Jerusalem and Babylon and names them as exiles. The root’s wider sense of release remains present, but here it does not soften the fact of their displacement.
ALSO GROWS
shaluach: Sent; one dispatched.
שָׁלוּחַ
This form carries the same שלח consonants and names the state of being sent.
shilluach: Sending away; dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This noun from the same root makes the movement away explicit, echoing the verse’s destination in Babylon.
שִׁמְעוּ
shimʿu
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, and attend; in context, hearing can include responding.
“So hear and respond” in this verse is shimʿu. This is a plural command addressed to the exiles: the word calls for their hearing now, even from a place far from Jerusalem. The root’s sense of attending or responding gives “hear” more weight than sound merely arriving.
ALSO GROWS
shomea: One who hears or listens.
שֹׁמֵעַ
This participle shares שמע and describes the hearer the command addresses.
shemiʿah: Hearing; listening.
שְׁמִיעָה
This noun from the same root names the act that the verse commands.
גּוֹלָה
golah
GROWS FROM
גלה
Uncover or reveal; the same root also carries the sense of going into exile or being carried away.
“exiles” in this verse is golah. The word גּוֹלָה (golah, exile or captive group) belongs to a root that also means uncover or reveal. These senses share a Hebrew root, though the verse names exile plainly and does not turn displacement into a promise of healing.
ALSO GROWS
galah: To uncover or reveal; also, to go into exile.
גָּלָה
This verb shares all three consonants with the root and holds both lexical senses within the same word family.
niglah: Was revealed; became visible.
נִגְלָה
This form retains the root consonants and shows its sense of becoming uncovered or visible.
THE PATTERN
Displacement changes where people are, but it does not end the word’s reach.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.So those who were scattered passed through every place, bringing the good news of the word.As you sent me into the world, so I also have sent them into the world.THE THREAD
Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel. Like these good figs, so will I look upon the uncovered ones of Judah, whom I sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.Jeremiah 24:5 repeats שָׁלַח (shalach, send or release) for people carried away into another land, then adds “for their good.” The shared root holds the hard fact of displacement alongside a stated purpose, without making the exile painless.
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