What Does Jeremiah 32:17 Mean?

Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great strength and outstretched arm, and nothing is too hard for you.

Jeremiah 32:17 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:

THE KEY

The Hebrew word translated “hard” also names what is wondrous: what exceeds your grasp is not beyond the Creator’s reach.

THE MEANING

The One who makes heaven and earth holds power beyond the measure of what you can see or do. What seems impossible from where you stand is not beyond God’s capacity.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that because you cannot see a way forward, no way exists.

THE ROOT

יִפָּלֵא

yippale

GROWS FROM

פלא

p-l-ʾ

To be extraordinary or wondrous, beyond ordinary comprehension.

“too hard” in this verse is yippale. The word rendered “hard” is from the same root used for wonders. The verse frames what exceeds human understanding as wondrous, while declaring that nothing lies beyond God’s reach.

ALSO GROWS

pele: Wonder, marvel

פֶּלֶא

This noun makes the shared root explicit: what is beyond ordinary measure can be a wonder.

nifla’ot: Wonders, marvelous deeds

נִפְלָאוֹת

This plural form names acts that exceed ordinary expectation, echoing the verse’s claim about God’s power.

THE PATTERN

What exceeds human capacity is not beyond God’s power.

Is any word too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will turn back to you, at this season of life, and Sarah will have a son.

Genesis 18:14 · SDVThe same Hebrew root ⁨פלא⁩ underlies “too hard,” making the question about what is wondrous rather than beyond God’s power.

I know that you can do all things, and that no plan can be walled off from you.

Job 42:2 · SDVJob names the same expansive trust: no purpose is outside God’s capacity.

For with God nothing will be impossible.

Luke 1:37 · SDVThis states the pattern plainly: what is impossible to people is possible with God.

THE THREAD

Such perceiving is too wonderful for me; it is high, and I cannot reach it.

Psalm 139:6 · SDV

Jeremiah’s “too hard” and the psalm’s “too wonderful” draw on the Hebrew root ⁨פלא⁩, for what is extraordinary and beyond comprehension. What the psalmist cannot attain is still held within the reach of the One who made heaven and earth.

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