What Does Jeremiah 3:5 Mean?
Will he guard his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end? Look, you have spoken, and you have done the evil within your reach.
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
Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.THE KEY
The plea for anger to end arrives while you are still able to carry the evil through.
THE MEANING
The question of whether God keeps anger forever stands beside the fact that you keep speaking and doing what is evil. The verse holds both realities in view: the desire for anger to end and your continuing capacity to do harm.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that asking for God’s anger to end makes ongoing harm irrelevant.
THE ROOT
יִנְטֹר
yintor
GROWS FROM
נ־ט־ר
n-ṭ-r
To retain or hold; in anger contexts, to hold a grudge.
“guard” in this verse is yintor. English “reserve” can suggest setting something aside, while נטר carries the sense of retaining or holding on. The question is whether God will continue to hold anger, even as the verse names the wrongdoing that continues.
ALSO GROWS
tittor: Hold a grudge; retain resentment.
תִּטֹּר
Leviticus 19:18 uses this form in the phrase “nor bear any grudge,” showing the same root’s connection to retaining anger.
nōṭēr: One who retains or holds wrath.
נֹטֵר
Nahum 1:2 uses this form for one who reserves wrath, giving “reserve” the sense of anger held over time.
יִשְׁמֹר
yishmor
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ר
sh-m-r
To watch, guard, or keep.
“keep” in this verse is yishmor. Hebrew pairs two different roots: first retaining, then guarding or keeping watch. Together they make the question about whether anger remains held and guarded “to the end.”
ALSO GROWS
shamar: Watch, guard, or keep.
שָׁמַר
This is the verb used in the verse, describing anger as something kept rather than simply felt.
mishmeret: A watch, guard duty, or charge.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This related form shows the root’s watchful quality, which deepens the sense of “keep it” in the verse.
וַתּוּכָלִי
vattukhali
GROWS FROM
י־כ־ל
y-k-l
To be able, have capacity, or prevail.
“within your reach” in this verse is vattukhali. The final verb makes the wrongdoing active: you are able to do it, and you carry it through. The root can describe capacity or prevailing, so the phrase holds agency alongside the question about anger.
ALSO GROWS
yāḵōl: Be able; can.
יָכֹל
This form gives the direct sense of capacity carried by “couldest.”
lō-yāḵōl: Was not able; could not prevail.
לֹא־יָכֹל
In Genesis 32:25 the same root describes not prevailing, showing its range from ability to overcoming.
THE PATTERN
Mercy can end the retaining of anger without making ongoing wrongdoing disappear.
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth, Guarding faithful love for thousands, carrying crookedness, rebellion, and falling short, and who by no means leaves the guilty clean, visiting the crookedness of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation.He does not contend forever, nor hold his anger for the ages.Or do you look down upon the fullness of his kindness, and the holding back, and the slowness to heat, not perceiving that the kindness of God leads you to turning? But according to your stiffness and a heart that will not turn, you store up the burning of anger for yourself in the day of anger and the unveiling of the aligned judgment of God.THE THREAD
He does not contend forever, nor hold his anger for the ages.Both verses use נטר (natar, retain) for keeping anger, so the verb that frames Jeremiah’s question appears in a direct answer: God does not retain anger forever. That answer does not erase Jeremiah’s naming of ongoing evil; mercy and accountability remain side by side.
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