What Does Jeremiah 31:14 Mean?
I will drench the living soul of the priests with fat, and my people will be filled with my goodness, declares 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
And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.THE KEY
Priests and people are joined by one Hebrew root of fullness: the same satisfaction reaches both through the images of fatness and goodness.
THE MEANING
This living word meets you with a picture of fullness: the LORD’s goodness reaches the living soul until it is satisfied. The nourishment named for the priests also belongs to “my people,” placing the reader within the verse’s shared abundance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that the LORD’s abundance is reserved for religious servants: the verse names the whole people as recipients of satisfaction too.
THE ROOT
שָׂבַע
savaʿ
GROWS FROM
שׂבע
To be full, sated, or satisfied.
“filled” in this verse is savaʿ. The first and final clauses use this one root for the LORD’s action toward the priests and the people’s satisfaction with goodness. English separates them as “satiate” and “satisfied”; Hebrew lets the same seed hold both the filling and its felt result.
ALSO GROWS
sovaʿ: Fullness or satiety.
שֹׂבַע
This noun names the fullness carried by both verbs in the verse.
saveaʿ: Satisfied or full.
שָׂבֵעַ
This form describes the state of fullness toward which the LORD’s giving brings the people.
דָּשֶׁן
deshen
GROWS FROM
דשן
To be rich or fat; to grow luxuriant.
“fat” in this verse is deshen. The image is of rich, nourishing abundance, giving the first root’s fullness a texture. The priests’ nourishment is pictured as richness rather than bare survival.
ALSO GROWS
deshen: Fatness, richness, or abundance.
דֶּשֶׁן
This noun supplies the image for how the priests are satiated.
dishshen: To make fat or enrich.
דִּשֵּׁן
The verb form shows the root’s movement from richness as a quality to enriching as an action.
נֶפֶשׁ
nefesh
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living being, life, or self.
The “soul” here is the living person, not a detached inner part: the verse speaks of a life that can hunger and be filled. A related verb describes recovering or refreshing oneself, linking this living soul with restoration.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul or person.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the living being whose satisfaction the verse describes.
nafash: To refresh oneself or take rest.
נָפַשׁ
The related verb brings out the restorative side of a living soul being filled.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s goodness reaches hungry human life as fullness that satisfies.
Why do you weigh out silver for what is not bread, and your toil for what does not fill? Hear and respond, hear and respond to me, and eat the good, and let your living soul delight itself in fatness.For he sates the thirsting living soul, and fills the hungry living soul with goodness.Flourishing are those who hunger and thirst for alignment, for they are filled.THE THREAD
My living soul is filled as with fat and richness, and my mouth praises you with ringing lips.Psalm 63:5 uses the same Hebrew root שׂבע (savaʿ, to be sated) for the soul’s satisfaction and pairs it with marrow and fatness. Jeremiah extends that fullness across priests and people, showing the same root at both scales.
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