What Does Jeremiah 31:7 Mean?
For thus says the LORD, Ring out with joy for Jacob, and shout at the head of the nations. Make it heard, praise, and say, O LORD, deliver your people, the remnant of Israel.
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
For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.THE KEY
The plea for deliverance is already surrounded by song: the remnant’s voice becomes the public shape of its hope.
THE MEANING
In your present life, joy and need can occupy the same prayer: gladness and shouting stand beside the plea for deliverance. The part that remains under pressure is still named as belonging, and it is given a voice among the nations.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that praise must wait until every need is resolved; here gladness and the plea for deliverance belong in the same utterance.
THE ROOT
הוֹשִׁיעָה
hoshi'ah
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ע
y-sh-ʿ
Deliver, bring out from constriction into spaciousness.
“deliver” in this verse is hoshi'ah. The plea is for more than rescue from immediate danger: this root carries movement out of narrowness into room to live. The command to sing and make the message heard places that deliverance within a shared voice.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
The noun names the same movement the verse asks for: the people brought out into spaciousness.
moshia: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings people out, making the plea personal as well as communal.
הַשְׁמִיעוּ
hashmi'u
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
Hear; listen and respond. In this form, cause something to be heard.
“Make it heard” in this verse is hashmi'u. “Publish” can suggest putting words into print, while this Hebrew form calls for making them audible. Its root also names hearing that receives and responds, so the announcement is meant to reach living ears.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen, respond
שָׁמַע
The root links the public announcement to hearing that engages with what is said.
shemuah: Report, tidings
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch is news made known, echoing the call to make deliverance heard.
שְׁאֵרִית
she'erit
GROWS FROM
ש־א־ר
sh-ʾ-r
Remain; be left over.
The remnant is what remains, not an erased people waiting to be replaced. The verse names what has survived as belonging and gives it a place in the song and the plea.
ALSO GROWS
she'ar: Remainder, rest
שְׁאָר
The branch makes clear that the remnant is what is left and still present.
nish'ar: Remained, was left
נִשְׁאַר
This form describes continued presence, the condition of the people addressed in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance gathers people into public speech that calls, praises, and makes hope heard.
And on that day you will say, Extend your hands to the LORD, call upon his nature, make his doings known among the peoples, and speak aloud that his nature is lifted high.Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, those he has redeemed from the hand of the one who presses.But you are a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people made his own, so that you may tell out the excellences of the one who called you out of darkness into his wondrous light.THE THREAD
Look, God is my deliverance. I will lean my full weight and not tremble, for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance.The same Hebrew root behind “save” appears in Isaiah’s word “salvation” twice, joining the plea and the song as one movement of deliverance. Isaiah makes explicit the connection Jeremiah compresses: the LORD is both strength and song.
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