What Does Jeremiah 42:10 Mean?
If you will still settle in this land, then I will build you and not tear down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I have relented of harm I have done to 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
If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “repent” also gives “comfort”: the verse’s turn from harm moves toward rebuilding and replanting.
THE MEANING
As you remain in the place this verse names, its promise is that you are built and planted rather than pulled down and uprooted. It calls the harm “evil” and speaks of relenting from it; restoration does not erase what happened, but changes what is happening now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that what has been uprooted is beyond restoration: the verse places replanting on the other side of real harm.
THE ROOT
נִחַמְתִּי
niḥamtî
GROWS FROM
נחם
n-ḥ-m
Relent or be moved; in other forms, comfort or console.
“relented of” in this verse is niḥamtî. The Hebrew verb carries the sense of relenting or being moved, and this same root also forms words for comfort and consolation. Beside “build” and “plant,” that shared root makes the change in response tangible: the movement turns toward life taking root again.
ALSO GROWS
niḥam: Relent, regret, or be moved.
נִחַם
This is the verb behind “I repent me,” naming a change in response to the harm.
neḥāmāh: Comfort or consolation.
נֶחָמָה
The same root’s comfort sense stands beside the promise of rebuilding and planting after harm.
וּבְנִיתִי
uvenîtî
GROWS FROM
בנה
b-n-h
Build or establish.
The verse says “build you,” making the people themselves the object of reconstruction. Paired with planting, the word holds restoration as both structure and life.
ALSO GROWS
mivneh: A structure or building.
מִבְנֶה
The branch makes the image of being built concrete: something established enough to stand.
binyan: Building or construction.
בִּנְיָן
This form keeps the focus on the work of building that answers the pulling down.
וְנָטַעְתִּי
venāṭaʿtî
GROWS FROM
נטע
n-ṭ-ʿ
Plant or set in soil.
“plant” in this verse is venāṭaʿtî. Planting answers plucking up at the level of the roots: the promise is renewed placement and growth. With “build,” it makes restoration both an established structure and a life re-anchored.
ALSO GROWS
nēṭaʿ: A planting or plant.
נֶטַע
This branch names what can take root after being plucked up.
netiʿāh: Planting or a plantation.
נְטִיעָה
It carries the act of planting into the image of a life given a place to grow.
THE PATTERN
Restoration takes shape as both rebuilding what can be inhabited and planting what can take root.
See, I have set you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to make perish and to break down, to build and to plant.And I will turn back the captives of my people Israel, and they shall build the emptied cities and settle in them. They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine. They shall make gardens and eat their fruit.For we are fellow workers with God. You are God's field; you are God's building.THE THREAD
If that nation, against which I have spoken, turns from its harm, I will relent of the harm I had planned to do to them.The “repent” in both passages comes from נָחַם (nāḥam), “relent or comfort.” Jeremiah 18:8 pairs this relenting with a change of course, opening Jeremiah 42:10 as a response that turns from destruction toward rebuilding and planting.
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