What Does Jeremiah 33:14 Mean?
Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make that good word stand, which I have spoken to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.
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
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the promised “thing” a davar, the same word family as “I spoke”, so the spoken promise is also the matter God says he will establish.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks now into the space between a promised good and its arrival: the word remains a matter God says he will establish. It meets the reader in the interval when fulfillment is not yet visible without treating that interval as proof that the spoken good has vanished.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a promised good has failed simply because it is not yet visible.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
Speak; a word or matter.
“that good word” in this verse is dābār. English gives “good thing” and “promised” as separate ideas, while the Hebrew uses the דבר family for both the matter and the speaking of it. The matter to be established is the matter God spoke.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the Hebrew noun behind “thing,” joining the promised good to the word that expresses it.
dibbartî: I spoke.
דִּבַּרְתִּי
This is the verb in the phrase translated “which I have promised”; the same root links the speaking to the matter spoken.
וַהֲקִמֹתִי
va-haqimoti
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise or stand; in a causative form, raise up or establish.
“make that good word stand” in this verse is va-haqimoti. The verb behind “perform” carries the sense of making something stand. Beside davar, the verse pictures a spoken matter being brought into an established reality.
ALSO GROWS
qum: Rise or stand.
קוּם
This is the root action beneath the promise: what is spoken comes to stand.
heqim: Raise up or establish.
הֵקִים
This causative form shows why the verse can speak of God establishing the good matter he has spoken.
THE PATTERN
God’s spoken good does not remain only words: he brings it to pass and establishes it.
And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah as he had spoken.For I am the LORD. I will speak, and the word I speak shall be done. It shall no more be drawn out. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a word and do it, says the Lord GOD.For all the promises of God are yes in him, and in him Amen, unto the weight of God through us.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.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word, davar, for “word” that Jeremiah uses for the promised “thing.” Isaiah makes the movement explicit: the word goes out and accomplishes what God sends it to do.
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