What Does Jeremiah 32:42 Mean?
For thus says the LORD, As I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I have spoken concerning them.
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; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.THE KEY
The good is already spoken before it is seen, and the verse names the LORD as the one bringing it into lived reality.
THE MEANING
The verse places the great evil already brought upon the people beside all the good the LORD has spoken and will bring. It does not call the evil good or pretend it is absent; it holds the promised good as still arriving in your present. The spoken word and the act of bringing remain joined.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that once harm has arrived, the good that was promised must have been withdrawn.
THE ROOT
דִּבַּרְתִּי
dibbarti
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak or declare; the related noun davar means word, matter, or thing.
“spoken concerning” in this verse is dibbarti. The Hebrew word translated “promised” is dibbarti, “I spoke.” Its root also gives davar, “word” or “matter,” holding the spoken promise close to the good the verse says the LORD brings.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
The same root that names speech can name a matter, linking what is spoken with what takes shape.
dibber: He spoke or declared
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root of dibbarti and makes the promise a spoken word.
devarim: Words or matters
דְּבָרִים
Its plural keeps the root’s range of speech and matters together.
הֵבֵאתִי
heveiti
GROWS FROM
ב־ו־א
b-w-ʾ
To come or enter; in causative forms, to cause to come or bring.
“brought / bring” in this verse is heveiti. The verbs for “brought” and “bring” are causative forms of בּוֹא (bo, “come” or “enter”): they carry the sense of causing something to come. The same root describes the great evil already brought and the good still coming, giving both movements their full weight in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
bo: Come or enter
בּוֹא
This is the root’s basic movement, present in both the completed and continuing action.
hevi: Bring or cause to come
הֵבִיא
This causative form shows how the verse’s “brought” and “bring” grow from the root.
mavo: Entrance or entry
מָבוֹא
This noun makes the root’s movement concrete as arrival into a place.
הַטּוֹבָה
ha-tovah
GROWS FROM
ט־ו־ב
t-w-b
Good, pleasant, or beneficial.
The good here is expressed by tovah, from the root tov, which also gives a verb meaning to do good or benefit. The verse presents good as something actively brought into people’s lives, not an abstraction detached from them.
ALSO GROWS
tov: Good or pleasant
טוֹב
This is the root’s basic sense, naming the good the LORD promises.
tovah: Goodness or benefit
טוֹבָה
This form names the good brought upon the people.
heitiv: Do good or benefit
הֵיטִיב
This verb shows the root’s active side: good can be done, not only described.
THE PATTERN
What the LORD speaks as good is carried toward fulfillment as an action.
Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he spoke. Not one word of all his good word has fallen, which he spoke by the hand of Moses his servant.So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.And being filled and carried through, he was persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to do.THE THREAD
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Jeremiah’s “promised” is דִּבַּרְתִּי (dibbarti, “I spoke”), and Isaiah names דְּבָרִי (devari, “my word”) as the word that accomplishes its purpose. Both grow from ד־ב־ר (d-b-r, “speak; word or matter”), linking Jeremiah’s spoken good with a word moving toward its work.
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