What Does Jeremiah 3:13 Mean?
Only know your crookedness, that you have broken away from the LORD your God, and you have scattered your ways to strangers under every green tree, and you have not heard and responded to my voice, 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
Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.THE KEY
Return begins by naming rebellion as a breakaway path and a voice left unheard.
THE MEANING
The verse names a present rupture: you rebel against the LORD your God, scatter your ways among strangers beneath every green tree, and do not heed the LORD’s voice. Its opening call to acknowledge brings that divided path and unheard voice into view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that return is possible while the rupture remains unnamed: the verse identifies rebellion, the scattered path, and the voice left unheard.
THE ROOT
פָּשַׁעַתְּ
pāšaʿat
GROWS FROM
פשע
To rebel, break away.
“broken away” in this verse is pāšaʿat. The verb translated “transgressed” belongs to the root of rebellion and breaking away; its noun branch names the break itself as פֶּשַׁע. The verse frames the rupture as a departure from relationship, made visible in the scattered ways that follow.
ALSO GROWS
pešaʿ: Rebellion; transgression.
פֶּשַׁע
This noun names the break enacted by the verb in the verse.
pōšēaʿ: A rebel; one who breaks away.
פֹּשֵׁעַ
The same root describes the one who makes the break, keeping the verse’s transgression relational rather than abstract.
דְּרָכַיִךְ
derakhayikh
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread, step, or make a way.
The English “ways” can sound like an abstract code of conduct, while this Hebrew family also carries the concrete act of treading a route. Here, the scattered paths are lived directions spread among strangers beneath every green tree.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: Way; path; road.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the singular form of the word whose plural appears in the verse.
dārakh: To tread; step.
דָּרַךְ
This verb shares the root and shows how a way is connected to the steps taken along it.
שְׁמַעְתֶּם
shemaʿtem
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, and attend.
“heard and responded” in this verse is shemaʿtem. The verb is built on שָׁמַע, “hear,” and in this setting hearing carries the response of attention. The LORD’s voice is named, while the listening response is absent.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear; listen and respond.
שְׁמַע
This form makes audible the receptive response implied by the verse’s verb.
shemuʿah: Report; news; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch shows the root extending from the act of hearing to what reaches the hearer.
THE PATTERN
Return opens as the breach is named openly and met with release or cleansing.
I make my falling short known to you, and my crookedness I do not cover. I say, I will speak my rebellion into the open before the LORD, and you release the crookedness of my falling short. Selah.If we speak our shortcomings into the open, he is steady and aligned, to release our shortcomings, and to cleanse us from all crookedness.THE THREAD
But he was pierced for our rebellion, and crushed for our crookedness. The straightening that made us whole was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.Isaiah uses the same root, פשע, in “our transgressions,” naming rebellion as a shared rupture. The verse places that rupture beside healing, opening Jeremiah’s call to acknowledge the break toward the possibility of repair.
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