What Does Jeremiah 36:7 Mean?
It may be that their pleas for favor will fall before the LORD, and that they will turn back, each from his evil way, for great is the burning anger and the heat that the LORD has spoken against this people.
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
It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.THE KEY
The verse places supplication and turning side by side: the plea for favor is not a plea to remain on the same path.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you now where appeal and a change of direction belong together: you may bring your plea before the LORD and turn from the path that is evil. The anger and fury spoken against the people remain grave; the verse does not make the danger unreal.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a plea alone makes it safe to remain on the same destructive path; here, supplication and turning belong together.
THE ROOT
וְיָשֻׁבוּ
veyashuvu
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
turn, return, come back
“turn back” in this verse is veyashuvu. The verse’s return is a change of direction, not merely a change of feeling or label. This root also forms words for turning back and for bringing something back, so the movement can be both a person’s return and a restoration.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return, turning
תְּשׁוּבָה
It makes explicit the directional movement contained in “return”: the way changes.
heshiv: bring back, restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shows the same root can describe bringing back what has wandered.
תְּחִנָּתָם
teḥinnātām
GROWS FROM
חָנַן
show favor, be gracious
“pleas for favor” in this verse is teḥinnātām. The word for their supplication grows from the root for showing favor. The plea is therefore an appeal for favor itself, held beside the separate movement of turning from the evil way.
ALSO GROWS
chen: favor
חֵן
The plea seeks the favor named by its own root.
ḥanan: show favor, be gracious
חָנַן
The verb names the favor the supplication asks for.
THE PATTERN
A plea before God is joined to a concrete turn away from the path that draws judgment.
But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and call out to God with strength; and let each one turn back from his harmful way, and from the violence in their hands.Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each according to his ways, says the Lord LORD. Turn, and turn yourselves from all your rebellions; so crookedness shall not be your stumbling block.Turn around, then, and turn back, so that your shortcomings may be wiped away, and the times of breathing again may come from the face of the LORD.THE THREAD
Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each according to his ways, says the Lord LORD. Turn, and turn yourselves from all your rebellions; so crookedness shall not be your stumbling block.Jeremiah’s “return” and Ezekiel’s “Repent, and turn yourselves” draw on the Hebrew root שׁוּב (shuv), meaning “turn, return.” Ezekiel uses the same root twice, where English gives two different phrases, making the movement of turning especially clear.
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