What Does Jeremiah 37:21 Mean?
Then Zedekiah the king said that they should set Jeremiah in the court of the guard, and that they should give him day by day a round loaf of bread from the wide street of the bakers, until all the bread of the city was used up. Thus Jeremiah settled in the court of the guard.
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
Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city were spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.THE KEY
Jeremiah receives daily bread in confinement, but his ration lasts only as long as the city’s supply.
THE MEANING
Jeremiah is fed one loaf a day while he remains in the prison court, and that provision lasts only until the city’s bread is gone. The verse holds care and danger together: a real supply can sustain life and still be sharply limited.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being provided for means being safe dissolves here: Jeremiah receives bread daily and remains confined, with hunger waiting at the limit of the city’s supply.
THE ROOT
לֶחֶם
lechem
GROWS FROM
לחם
l-ḥ-m
Bread, food; the same consonants also spell a verb meaning “fight.”
“bread” in this verse is lechem. The Hebrew repeats lechem for Jeremiah’s ration and the city’s dwindling supply: what sustains him comes from the same store running out around him. The consonants also echo lacham, “to fight”; that sound resonates with the besieged city without requiring the two senses to share an origin.
ALSO GROWS
lechem: Bread, food
לֶחֶם
The daily loaf is a ration drawn from the city’s finite supply.
lacham: Fight, contend
לָחַם
Its consonants echo the struggle surrounding the ration; this is a sound-shape connection, not a claim that the two words must share a derivation.
תֹּם
tom
GROWS FROM
תמם
t-m-m
To be complete, to come to an end.
“used up” in this verse is tom. The word translated “spent” comes from the root for reaching completion. The city’s bread is not merely low; it reaches its endpoint, setting a hard boundary on Jeremiah’s daily ration.
ALSO GROWS
tamam: Be complete, come to an end
תָּמַם
This verb carries the sense of the city’s bread supply reaching its limit.
tamim: Whole, complete
תָּמִים
The same root can describe wholeness; here its completion marks the supply’s end.
וַיֵּשֶׁב
wayyeshev
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
To sit, settle, dwell, remain.
“settled” in this verse is wayyeshev. The verse closes with Jeremiah still dwelling in the prison court. The word lets remaining and dwelling share the same root, so the bread sustains him there without changing his confinement.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: Sit, dwell, remain
יָשַׁב
This is the verb behind Jeremiah’s continued presence in the court.
moshav: Dwelling place, seat
מוֹשָׁב
This related noun carries the sense of a settled place, fitting the verse’s closing image of Jeremiah still confined there.
THE PATTERN
In scarcity, a measured portion can sustain life while remaining bounded by the supply available.
For thus says the LORD God of Israel, the jar of meal shall not run out, nor shall the flask of oil run short, until the day the LORD sends rain upon the ground.They will not be shamed in the evil time, and in the days of hunger they will be filled.Give us today our bread for the coming day.THE THREAD
My lord the king, these men have done harm in all they did to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they threw into the pit, and he will die by hunger where he is, for there is no more bread in the city.The same word, lechem (bread), sets the limit already present in the daily ration: the city’s supply runs out. The next verse names the consequence for Jeremiah, the confinement becomes life-threatening hunger.
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