What Does Jeremiah 38:5 Mean?
Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand, for the king is not able to do anything against you.
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 said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you.THE KEY
The title “king” carries the root of reigning, yet the sentence places that title beside a declaration of inability as Jeremiah is handed over.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now when someone with authority places another in the hands of people seeking to harm him. The claim “I cannot act against you” sits beside the handoff, so declared powerlessness does not make the transfer disappear. The one surrendered bears the danger while the king keeps his title.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a person with power becomes uninvolved by saying they cannot intervene. The transfer remains visible in the king’s own words.
THE ROOT
מֶלֶךְ
melekh
GROWS FROM
מלך
The root מָלַךְ (mālaḵ) means to reign or rule.
The word for king carries the same root as the word for reigning: the title contains the act it names. Here the title remains even as the king declares his inability to act, exposing the gap between bearing authority and exercising it.
ALSO GROWS
mālaḵ: to reign, rule
מָלַךְ
This verb makes the ruling action inside the king’s title visible.
mamlāḵāh: kingdom, realm
מַמְלָכָה
The kingdom grows from the same root, tying the king’s role to the realm his authority is meant to govern.
דָּבָר
dāḇār
GROWS FROM
דבר
The root דָּבַר (dāḇar) means to speak or utter; its noun also means a word, matter, or thing.
What the KJV calls a “thing” here is דָּבָר (dāḇār), also the word for speech or a matter. English hides that the king’s inability reaches what can be said against the officials as well as what can be done.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: spoke, said
דִּבֵּר
This verb makes the spoken sense of the verse’s “thing” visible.
devarim: words, matters
דְּבָרִים
This plural shows the same root holding speech and matters together.
THE PATTERN
A handoff remains an exercise of authority even when the language around it stresses powerlessness.
As for me, here I am, in your hand. Do to me what is good and straight in your eyes.Jesus answered, You would have no authority at all against me, unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you has a greater shortcoming.And he released to them the one who had been thrown into prison for rising and bloodshed, the one they had asked for, but he handed Jesus over to their will.THE THREAD
As for me, here I am, in your hand. Do to me what is good and straight in your eyes.The phrase “in your hand” echoes directly across these verses. In Jeremiah 26:14, the speaker names his own exposure; here, the king names Jeremiah’s exposure for him.
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