What Does Jeremiah 32:38 Mean?

And they will be my people, and I will be their God.

Jeremiah 32:38 · 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

And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:

THE KEY

The same Hebrew verb holds both sides of the promise: they shall be God’s people, and God will be theirs.

THE MEANING

This promise speaks to you now as a bond of belonging: you are God’s people, and God commits to be your God. Both halves use the same Hebrew verb, joining your belonging with God’s commitment.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

It undoes the belief that belonging is one-sided, that you are the only one reaching while God remains distant.

THE ROOT

וְהָיוּ

vehayu

GROWS FROM

היה

hayah

To be, become, or come to pass.

“shall be / will be” in this verse is vehayu. The same root appears as ⁨וְהָיוּ⁩ (vehayu, “they shall be”) and ⁨אֶהְיֶה⁩ (ehyeh, “I will be”), tying the people’s belonging to God’s own commitment. The first-person form also echoes God’s self-declaration in Exodus 3:14.

ALSO GROWS

ehyeh: I am / I will be

אֶהְיֶה

This first-person form is used both for God’s promise here and God’s self-declaration to Moses in Exodus 3:14.

yihyeh: He/it will be

יִהְיֶה

This future form shows the same root describing what is yet to be, as in the promise that God will be theirs.

THE PATTERN

Covenant belonging takes the form of mutual presence: the people are God’s, and God commits to be theirs.

And I will walk among you, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people.

Leviticus 26:12 · SDVGod’s promise to be their God is joined to walking among them.

And what setting down together has the temple of God with images? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, "I will dwell in them, and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

2 Corinthians 6:16 · SDVThe same mutual belonging is described as God dwelling and walking among the people.

And I hear a great voice from the throne, saying, Look, the tent of God is with humankind, and he will pitch his tent among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Revelation 21:3 · SDVThe bond reaches its fullest expression as God dwells with the people and is their God.

THE THREAD

And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And he said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

Exodus 3:14 · SDV

The Hebrew form ⁨אֶהְיֶה⁩ (ehyeh, “I am / I will be”) behind “I will be” here is the same form spoken in God’s self-declaration to Moses. The promise that God will be theirs echoes the voice that says, “I will be.”

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