What Does Jeremiah 29:23 Mean?
Because they have done shameful folly in Israel, and have lain down with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken lying words in my nature, which I did not command them. Even I perceive it, and I am the witness, says the LORD.
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
Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours’ wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the LORD.THE KEY
A lie does not become God’s word by borrowing God’s name; the one invoked as its authority is also its witness.
THE MEANING
The verse names both the adultery and the false words presented in God’s name. The LORD knows what happened and stands as witness to what was actually spoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that using God’s name makes a claim true or keeps hidden wrongdoing unseen.
THE ROOT
עֵד
ʿēd
GROWS FROM
עוּד
ʿ-w-d
To testify or solemnly affirm; the related verb also carries a sense of repeating or doing again.
The verse does not stop at God knowing; it names God as an attesting witness. The root connects that witness with testimony, making the false claim answerable to what is actually affirmed.
ALSO GROWS
ʿēdût: Testimony, attestation
עֵדוּת
It shares the root’s language of witness and shows that testimony is an affirmed account, not merely an impression.
hēʿîd: To testify, bear witness
הֵעִיד
This verbal form makes the witness active: the truth of the claim is being attested.
נְבָלָה
nebālāh
GROWS FROM
נבל
n-b-l
To act foolishly or become morally senseless; the same consonants also appear in a verb meaning to wither or fade.
“shameful folly” in this verse is nebālāh. The word names conduct judged as deeply disordered, not merely impolite. The related image of withering adds a sense of collapse beside the verse’s contrast between their false speech and the LORD’s true witness.
ALSO GROWS
nābāl: A fool; a morally senseless person
נָבָל
The same root names both the disgraceful act and the person whose conduct lacks moral sense.
nāvēl: To wither or fade
נָבֵל
This related use of the consonants gives an image of collapse alongside the moral force of “villany.”
THE PATTERN
A claim made under divine authority remains answerable to whether God spoke it, because nothing is concealed from God’s sight.
But the prophet, who boils over to speak a word in my nature, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the nature of other gods, that one dies.To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, you probe me, and you perceive me.And no creation is hidden before him, but all things are naked and bared at the throat to the eyes of him to whom our account belongs.THE THREAD
But the prophet, who boils over to speak a word in my nature, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the nature of other gods, that one dies.Deuteronomy gives the same test: a word spoken in God’s name is still false if God did not command it. Jeremiah adds that the one whose authority is invoked also knows and bears witness.
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