What Does Jeremiah 33:20 Mean?
Thus says the LORD. If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that day and night do not come in their time.
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
Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;THE KEY
Day and night are named as a covenant with the LORD, making the rhythm you take for granted a promise that cannot be annulled.
THE MEANING
Day and night arrive in their appointed time under a covenant held by the LORD. Your life unfolds inside a rhythm already given, beyond human power to cancel.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what the LORD has established can be nullified by human failure.
THE ROOT
תָּפֵרוּ
tāphēru
GROWS FROM
פרר
To break up, frustrate, or make void.
The verb comes from a root whose range includes breaking up, frustrating, and making void. English “break” can sound like a single snap; this root also reveals the attempt to undo or nullify the covenant that carries day and night in their appointed time.
ALSO GROWS
hēphēr: Made void; annulled.
הֵפֵר
This form shows the root’s sense of actively nullifying something, the very possibility the verse raises about the covenant.
huphar: Was made void; was annulled.
הֻפַּר
This form shows the same root from the other side: something made void. The verse sets the covenant of day and night against that possibility.
THE PATTERN
The recurring rhythms of the world are held as divine provision, not left to chance or human control.
All the days of the earth, sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not stop.The day is yours, the night also is yours; you set firm the light and the sun.So that you may become children of your Father in the heavens, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the aligned and on the crooked.THE THREAD
Thus says the LORD. If my covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not set the statutes of heaven and earth.This verse repeats the same Hebrew word, בְּרִית (berit), “covenant,” and places it beside the appointed order of heaven and earth. Together, the verses show day and night as the recurring witness to a promise.
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