What Does Jeremiah 31:4 Mean?
Again I will build you, and you will be built, virgin of Israel. Again you will adorn yourself in your tambourines, and you will go out in the dances of those who laugh.
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
Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.THE KEY
The verse binds rebuilding to dance: restoration reaches the body and the community, not just what can be repaired on paper.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as someone who can be rebuilt, and that rebuilding opens into adornment, rhythm, and shared celebration. The verse lets restoration include the body’s outward movement and the community’s joy, rather than ending at mere survival.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that being broken makes joy permanently unavailable: rebuilding and dancing belong to the same picture of restoration.
THE ROOT
בָּנָה
banah
GROWS FROM
בנה
banah
to build or establish
The Hebrew repeats the root: “I will build you, and you will be built.” Its family also includes בֵּן (ben, son), linking building with the growth of a household or people. The verse moves from being built to making music and dancing, so restoration is pictured as a whole life coming back into form.
ALSO GROWS
binyan: a building or structure
בִּנְיָן
This branch makes the image of being built concrete: restoration gives a people structure and a place to stand.
ben: a son or descendant
בֵּן
This word is traditionally linked with banah, as offspring build a household and carry it forward.
מָחוֹל
maḥol
GROWS FROM
חול
ḥul
to whirl or turn, with bodily movement that can also describe writhing
The word for dance carries the shape of turning and whirling: joy here is something embodied and seen. The verse places that movement after rebuilding, as if restoration becomes visible when the people can move together again.
ALSO GROWS
maḥol: a dance
מָחוֹל
This is the verse’s word for dance, naming celebration as movement rather than only an inward feeling.
ḥul: to whirl, turn, or writhe
חוּל
This related form connects the dance to a turning, bodily motion; the verse’s joy has rhythm and motion.
THE PATTERN
Restoration rebuilds what was broken until grief and immobility give way to embodied movement and joy.
You overturned the beating of my breast into a dance. You untied my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.And they shall build the dry ruins of the ages, they shall raise up the former stunned places, and they shall make new the dry cities, the stunned places of many generations.And leaping up, he stood and walked, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.THE THREAD
Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together. I will overturn their mourning into gladness, and I will comfort them, and I will gladden them out of their sorrow.The same Hebrew word מָחוֹל (maḥol, dance) appears in both verses. Jeremiah 31:4 joins rebuilding to dance; verse 13 opens that dance further as mourning turned into joy shared across generations.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us