What Does Jeremiah 40:1 Mean?
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after Nebuzaradan, chief of the slaughterers, had sent him away from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all who were uncovered from Jerusalem and Judah and led to Babylon.
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
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb behind “let him go” also means “send,” so Jeremiah’s release is a sending that takes place while his chains are still real.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word meets you in a scene where release and captivity coexist: Jeremiah is sent out of Ramah while still bound among people carried away by force. The verse does not make the chains disappear to make the release real; the word arrives within the violence of the scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that release counts only after every restraint disappears: Jeremiah is let go from Ramah while the chains remain.
THE ROOT
שָׁלַח
šālaḥ
GROWS FROM
ש־ל־ח
š-l-ḥ
To send, send forth, or release.
“sent him away” in this verse is šālaḥ. The verb joins sending with release: Jeremiah is sent out from Ramah, though the chains remain part of the scene. The same root can describe a messenger sent forth or a dismissal, holding movement and release together.
ALSO GROWS
šālîaḥ: Messenger; one sent.
שְׁלִיחַ
This branch makes the link between being sent and carrying a message visible in the same root.
šillûaḥ: Sending away or dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
It echoes Jeremiah’s release as an act of sending him away from Ramah.
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak or utter; the noun can mean a word, matter, or affair.
The Hebrew word can name both speech and a matter or affair. Here, the LORD’s word comes into Jeremiah’s actual circumstances, not into a scene separated from what is happening to him.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: He spoke or declared.
דִּבֵּר
This verb shares the root of “word,” linking what is spoken to the utterance itself.
dəvārîm: Words, matters, or affairs.
דְּבָרִים
This plural preserves the word’s range from speech to matters, opening up the weight of what comes to Jeremiah.
אָסוּר
ʾāsûr
GROWS FROM
א־ס־ר
ʾ-s-r
To bind or tie.
The word names an actual restraint: Jeremiah is bound in chains among people carried away captive. Its root also forms words for a prisoner and for imprisonment, keeping the force of captivity present in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāsîr: Prisoner or captive.
אֲסִיר
This branch names the person held by the binding described in the verse.
maʾāsār: Imprisonment or confinement.
מַאֲסָר
It extends the root from the act of binding to the condition that binding creates.
THE PATTERN
Release is voiced as sending forth from constraint, even while the surrounding conditions remain visible.
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.Is this not the fast I have chosen, to open the bonds of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to send the crushed away free, and to tear away every yoke?The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told the Great House, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may dance a feast to me in the wilderness.The Hebrew verb behind “Let my people go” is שָׁלַח (šālaḥ), the same root behind Jeremiah’s “let him go.” The root holds release and sending together: Jeremiah is sent out while bound, and Exodus speaks the same verb over a whole people.
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