What Does Jeremiah 40:15 Mean?
Then Johanan son of Careah spoke in the hidden place to Gedaliah at Mizpah, saying, Let me go, please, and I will strike down Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no one will know it. Why would he strike down your living soul, so that all the Jews gathered to you would be scattered, and the remnant of Judah perish?
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 Johanan the son of Kareah spake to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, Let me go, I pray thee, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it: wherefore should he slay thee, that all the Jews which are gathered unto thee should be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish?THE KEY
The proposal tries to stop a people from scattering by making one death invisible.
THE MEANING
A group’s fear of scattering can make the hidden killing of one person sound like protection. The verse keeps the larger stakes visible: the gathered people may disperse, and Judah’s remnant may perish. “No man shall know it” names the secrecy of the act, while the proposed outcome still reaches everyone.
THE ROOT
בַּסֵּתֶר
bassēter
GROWS FROM
סתר
s-t-r
To hide or conceal; to be out of view.
“in the hidden place” in this verse is bassēter. “No man shall know it” follows the word for “secretly,” but this root speaks of concealment, not consequences vanishing. Johanan frames the killing as hidden from human sight while naming the public fate he believes it can prevent.
ALSO GROWS
seter: Secret; hiding place.
סֵתֶר
The verse’s “secretly” carries the sense of an action placed out of sight.
histir: To hide; to conceal.
הִסְתִּיר
Concealment describes what happens to the act’s visibility, not the scale of the stakes named in the verse.
nistar: Hidden; concealed.
נִסְתָּר
The root’s other forms keep hiddenness distinct from whether an act affects the gathered people.
וְנָפֹצוּ
wenafotsu
GROWS FROM
פוץ
p-w-ts
To scatter, disperse, or spread out.
“scattered” in this verse is wenafotsu. The feared outcome is movement outward from a people gathered around Gedaliah. The root makes the stakes a rupture in communal gathering, not only a threat to one life.
ALSO GROWS
hefits: To spread; to cause to scatter.
הֵפִיץ
This form shows scattering as something that can be brought about, not merely a crowd’s movement.
nafotz: Scattered; dispersed.
נָפוֹץ
This form names the condition Johanan fears for the people gathered around Gedaliah.
יִשְׁמָעֵאל
Yishma'el
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, or heed; the name means “God hears.”
The name Ishmael means “God hears,” placing hearing beside the claim that “no man shall know it.” Human secrecy is part of the proposal, while the name keeps hearing present within the same sentence.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
The root holds listening together with response, extending the hearing carried in Ishmael’s name.
shemu'ah: Report; something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch connects hearing to what becomes known or carried as a report, beside the promise that no man will know.
THE PATTERN
Fear of a community’s dispersal can drive a decisive plan meant to secure its survival.
And they said, Come, let us build us a city and a tower with its head in the heavens; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered across the face of the whole earth.Nor do you reckon that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish.And not for that nation only, but that he would also gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.THE THREAD
Woe to the shepherds who drive to lose the way and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the LORD.Jeremiah 40:15 uses the root פוץ (puts, “scatter”) for the feared dispersal of people gathered around Gedaliah; Jeremiah 23:1 uses the same root for leaders who scatter the flock. The shared root lets the claim of protection be read beside the outcome it fears.
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