What Does Jeremiah 38:20 Mean?
But Jeremiah said, They shall not give you into their hand. Hear and respond, I beseech you, to the voice of the LORD, which I speak to you, and it will be good for you, and your living soul shall live.
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
But Jeremiah said, They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy soul shall live.THE KEY
The verse binds the life of the whole self to a voice that is truly heard and answered.
THE MEANING
The threat around you does not have to define the whole of your life. The LORD’s voice reaches you now as something to hear and answer, and the verse joins that responsive hearing to well-being and the life of your whole self. What is at stake is the life of the person, not a separate part called a soul.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the fear that the people you dread have the final say over your life; the feared handover stands beside a voice that opens a way to well-being and life.
THE ROOT
שְׁמֹעַ
shamoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, respond.
The word behind “obey” is שְׁמֹעַ (shamoa, hear and respond): the verse presents obedience as hearing that answers, not as a separate stage after hearing. Its branches preserve the link between what reaches the ear and the response that follows.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen, respond.
שָׁמַע
This is the basic verb behind the appeal to obey; hearing here carries the possibility of response within it.
shemuah: Report, news that is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
The same root can name what is heard and carried forward; here the LORD’s voice bears a word that calls for an answer.
יִתְּנוּ
yittenu
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
יִתְּנוּ (yittenu, they will give) comes from נתן (natan, give, set, place), so the feared “delivery” is a concrete handover. The root’s range keeps the reassurance grounded: the question is whether you are placed into the power you fear.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: Gift, something given.
מַתָּנָה
This branch makes the root’s basic sense of giving visible; in the verse, the feared giving over would place a person in another’s hands.
nathun: Given, set in place.
נָתוּן
This form shows the state that follows giving: where someone is placed matters to the promise of safety.
נַפְשְׁךָ
nafshekha
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self; life as a living being.
“living soul” in this verse is nafshekha. נַפְשְׁךָ (nafshekha, your living self) names the life of the whole person, not a separate fragment surviving apart from you. A related verb, וַיִּנָּפַשׁ (wayyinnaphash, was refreshed), lets the root carry a neighboring sense of restoration as well as living self.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul, living self.
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the noun in “thy soul shall live”: the promise concerns the life of the whole person.
wayyinnaphash: Was refreshed.
וַיִּנָּפַשׁ
This related verb gives the root a shade of restoration, widening “shall live” beyond bare continuation.
THE PATTERN
Life opens where a voice is heard as a response-bearing word.
That you may love the LORD your God, and that you may hear and respond to his voice, and that you may cling to him; for he is your life, and the lengthening of your days; that you may settle upon the ground the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.Truly, truly, I say to you, The hour is coming, and now it is, when the dead will hear and respond to the voice of the Son of God, and those who respond will live.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Bend your ear and come to me. Hear and respond, and your living soul shall live. I will cut a covenant of the ages with you, the steady faithful loves of David.Isaiah 55:3 repeats the same roots: שמע (shama, hear and respond) and נפש (nefesh, living self). The pairing makes the promise plain: the living self is joined to life through hearing that answers.
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