What Does Jeremiah 40:5 Mean?
Now while he had not yet turned back, he said, Turn back also to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has set over the cities of Judah, and settle with him among the people, or go wherever seems straight in your eyes to go. So the chief of the slaughterers gave him food and a gift, and sent him away.
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
Now while he was not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people: or go wheresoever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward, and let him go.THE KEY
The verse makes release a supported departure: the way remains open, and the traveler leaves with food and a reward.
THE MEANING
You are given a place among people and allowed to choose another path; food and a reward are placed in your hands as you leave. Release here carries both agency and provision.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being let go means being cast out without choice or support dissolves here: you receive an offered place, another route to choose, provisions, and a reward.
THE ROOT
וַיְשַׁלְּחֵהוּ
wayeshallchehu
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send forth, release, or let go.
“sent him away” in this verse is wayeshallchehu. The closing verb comes from שָׁלַח (shalach, “send forth, release”), so the action is both sending Jeremiah onward and releasing him. The release is accompanied by provisions and a reward, making the departure a supported passage rather than an empty dismissal.
ALSO GROWS
leshalleach: To send away or release.
לְשַׁלֵּחַ
This verb form shows the same root holding together the acts of sending someone onward and letting them go.
Shiloach: “Sent”; the Hebrew name associated with the waters of Siloam.
שִׁלֹחַ
John 9:7 glosses the pool’s name as “Sent,” linking this sending-root to a story of restored sight.
הַיָּשָׁר
hayashar
GROWS FROM
ישר
To be straight, level, or upright; what is right.
The phrase behind “whatsoever seemeth convenient unto thee” is יָשָׁר (yashar, “straight, right”) in your eyes. The choice is entrusted to what appears right to the person choosing, and the root gives that choice the image of a path that lies open.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: Straight, right, or upright.
יָשָׁר
It supplies the word behind the traveler’s freedom to choose what seems right in his own eyes.
meysharim: Uprightness or equity.
מֵישָׁרִים
This branch carries the root’s sense of what is level and upright into the verse’s language of personal judgment.
גְּדַלְיָהוּ
Gedalyahu
GROWS FROM
גדל
To grow, become great, or increase.
“Gedaliah” in this verse is Gedalyahu. The name גְּדַלְיָהוּ (Gedalyahu, “YHWH has made great”) carries the root of growth and increase. The invitation to dwell with him holds that name beside the traveler’s open choice of where to go.
ALSO GROWS
gadol: Great or large.
גָּדוֹל
The familiar word for greatness grows from the same seed as Gedaliah’s name.
migdal: Tower.
מִגְדָּל
A tower is something raised up, another branch of the root’s sense of growing or becoming great.
THE PATTERN
Release opens an outward path, and what is sent can carry provision or restoration.
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.He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.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 he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.John glosses the pool’s Hebrew name, שִׁלֹחַ (Shiloach, “Sent”), from שָׁלַח (shalach, “send forth, release”), the same root as Jeremiah’s final verb, “let him go.” In John, what is sent is water, and the man returns seeing: the sending opens into restoration.
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