What Does Jeremiah 37:20 Mean?
And now hear and respond, I pray you, my lord the king. Let my plea fall before your face, and do not turn me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.
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
Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king: let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee; that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.THE KEY
The Hebrew pictures Jeremiah’s plea falling before the king, where power is asked to meet the danger the plea names.
THE MEANING
A threat to your life can be named plainly before someone with power over what happens next. The plea does not hide its stakes: returning to that house means death there. It holds a request for favor in the moment before the feared outcome becomes the next step.
THE ROOT
תִּפֹּל
tipol
GROWS FROM
נפל
naphal
to fall
The Hebrew verb comes from נפל (naphal), meaning “to fall”: the petition is pictured as falling before the king. “Accepted” names the hoped-for welcome, while the Hebrew also lets you see the plea come into the king’s presence.
ALSO GROWS
nafal: to fall
נָפַל
This is the root verb behind the image of Jeremiah’s plea falling before the king.
mapalah: a downfall or collapse
מַפָּלָה
This branch keeps the root’s sense of falling and sharpens the stakes of a plea made under threat.
תְּחִנָּתִי
tachinati
GROWS FROM
חנן
chanan
to show favor or be gracious
Jeremiah’s word for supplication carries the seed of favor: he asks that his plea be met with gracious regard. The word holds both the request and the kind of response being sought.
ALSO GROWS
chen: favor
חֵן
This branch names the favorable regard Jeremiah asks the king to show his plea.
chanun: gracious or favor-giving
חַנּוּן
This branch describes the quality of the response implicit in Jeremiah’s appeal.
יְהוֹנָתָן
Yehonatan
GROWS FROM
נתן
natan
to give, set, or place
“Jonathan” in this verse is Yehonatan. Yehonatan means “YHWH has given,” with נתן (natan), meaning “to give,” as its verbal root. The name’s meaning sits beside the danger Jeremiah associates with this house without erasing what he says about it.
ALSO GROWS
natan: to give, set, or place
נָתַן
This verb supplies the “has given” meaning within the name Yehonatan.
mattanah: a gift
מַתָּנָה
This noun is another branch of נתן, the giving root within Jonathan’s name.
THE PATTERN
A desperate plea brings the threatened outcome before whoever has the power to answer.
And Esther spoke again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and pleaded with him for favor with tears, to carry away the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the plot he had woven against the Jews.This bowed one cries out, and the LORD hears him, and brings him out of all his narrow places.In the days of his flesh, he brought near prayers and clinging pleas, with a strong outcry and tears, to the one able to deliver him out of death, and he was heard because of his awe.THE THREAD
You rise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to favor her; the appointed time has come.Jeremiah’s “supplication” and the Psalm’s “favour” grow from חנן (chanan), meaning “to show favor.” The shared root connects the plea laid before the king with favor shown to Zion.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us