What Does Jeremiah 41:5 Mean?
That there came eighty men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, with their beards shaved, and their clothes torn, and having gashed themselves, with grain gifts and frankincense in their hands, to bring them to the house of the LORD.
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
That there came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the LORD.THE KEY
Grief and devotion travel in one procession: the body bears cuts while the hands carry offerings.
THE MEANING
Grief approaches the sacred visibly: bodies bear shaved beards, torn clothes, and cuts, while hands carry offerings and incense toward the LORD’s house. Visible sorrow and devotion occupy the same procession.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse unsettles the belief that grief must be hidden before someone can approach the LORD’s house: these men arrive with grief marked on their bodies and offerings in their hands.
THE ROOT
מִתְגֹּדְדִים
mitgodedim
GROWS FROM
גדד
To cut or gash; in this reflexive form, to cut oneself.
“having gashed themselves” in this verse is mitgodedim. The verb belongs to גדד, a root family that also gives a word for a troop or band. Eighty men arrive together, each bearing a cut; the shared consonants bring the gathered group and the bodily incision into one sound-family without making their meanings identical.
ALSO GROWS
gedidah: An incision; a cutting.
גְּדִידָה
This noun names the bodily mark made by the action in the verse.
gedud: A troop or band.
גְּדוּד
This related form echoes the men arriving as a gathered group, while retaining its distinct meaning.
לְבֹנָה
levonah
GROWS FROM
לבן
White; to be or become white.
The Hebrew name for frankincense carries the color white in its root. The word rendered “incense” thus names not only what is burned, but also the pale resin held in the hand.
ALSO GROWS
lavan: White.
לָבָן
This adjective shows the color held in the root of the incense word.
levonah: Frankincense, an aromatic resin used as incense.
לְבֹנָה
This is the word for incense in the verse, joining its use to the root’s sense of whiteness.
THE PATTERN
What grief or devotion holds inwardly becomes visible through the body and what the hands bring.
And Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.Therefore I urge you, brothers, through the compassions of God, to set your bodies beside God as a living sacrifice, set apart, well-pleasing to him, which is your true service.Then Mary took a pound of ointment of genuine nard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and dried his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the scent of the ointment.THE THREAD
And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances, until the blood poured out upon them.Both verses use a form of גדד (gādad), “to cut or gash oneself.” In Jeremiah the cuts appear alongside torn clothes and offerings; here they accompany a shouted ritual appeal, making the shared bodily act unmistakable.
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