What Does Jeremiah 3:14 Mean?
Turn back, O turned-away children, says the LORD, for I am your husband. I will take you, one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you to Zion.
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
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both turning away and turning back, so the way home is hidden inside the word for backsliding.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as a child even in the midst of turning away. The LORD names an existing bond and gathers you from scattered places toward Zion. Return is spoken within that relationship.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Turning away has erased your belonging, and being scattered means you are beyond being gathered.
THE ROOT
שׁוּבוּ
shuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
Turn, return.
“Turn back” in this verse is shuvu. “Turn” and “backsliding” come from the same root. Hebrew holds the turning away and the return in one word-family, where English gives them separate names.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn, return.
שׁוּב
This is the root movement named by the command “Turn.”
shovavim: Rebellious, backsliding.
שׁוֹבָבִים
The word for the children’s backsliding comes from the same root as the command to return, linking departure and return.
בָּעַלְתִּי
ba'alti
GROWS FROM
בעל
Be a husband, master, or possessor.
“your husband” in this verse is ba'alti. The phrase rendered “I am married unto you” uses ba’alti, “I have been a husband to you.” The root also carries the sense of master or owner, so the verse speaks of an existing bond and belonging before it describes the gathering.
ALSO GROWS
ba'al: Husband, master, or owner.
בַּעַל
This is the role expressed by the phrase “I am married unto you.”
be'alim: Owners, masters; also husbands.
בְּעָלִים
This plural form preserves the root’s overlap of marital bond, authority, and belonging.
THE PATTERN
Turning back is met with a movement of welcome and restoration.
Turn back, Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled in your crookedness.Turn back, O turned-away children, and I will heal your turnings-away. Look, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.THE THREAD
Turn back, O turned-away children, and I will heal your turnings-away. Look, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God.The same root שוב (shuv, “turn” or “return”) names both “return” and “backsliding” in these verses. The next line adds healing to that shared word-family, showing return as a movement into restoration.
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