What Does Jeremiah 42:2 Mean?
And they said to Jeremiah the prophet, Let our plea fall before you, we ask, and pray for us to the LORD your God, even for all these who are left, for we are left but a few out of many, as your eyes see us.
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
And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:)THE KEY
The Hebrew word for “supplication” grows from the root for favor, so the plea itself names the gracious reception it seeks.
THE MEANING
When what remains is only a few, the verse names that smallness plainly and says the remnant is still beheld. Need appears here as a plea carried through another’s intercession before the LORD.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that being reduced to a remnant means becoming unseen is undone by the words, “thine eyes do behold us.”
THE ROOT
תְּחִנָּתֵנוּ
teḥinnātenu
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥanan
to show favor; to be gracious
“our plea” in this verse is teḥinnātenu. The Hebrew word behind “supplication” comes from חנן (ḥanan, “to show favor; to be gracious”), so favor is carried inside the plea. They ask for a gracious reception before the prophet as he prays for them before the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
chen: favor
חֵן
This branch makes clear the kind of reception sought in the supplication.
ḥannun: gracious
חַנּוּן
This describes the quality of the favor the plea seeks.
taḥanun: supplication; plea for favor
תַּחֲנוּן
This related word makes explicit the same connection between pleading and favor.
שְׁאֵרִית
she’erit
GROWS FROM
שאר
sha’ar
to remain; to be left
“who are left” in this verse is she’erit. The verse pairs שְׁאֵרִית (she’erit, “remnant”) with נִשְׁאַרְנוּ (nish’arnu, “we are left”), both from שאר (sha’ar, “to remain”). English gives them separate labels, while Hebrew repeats one seed: the remnant is precisely those who remain.
ALSO GROWS
she’ar: remainder; what is left
שְׁאָר
It names what remains, the same condition the speakers describe as being left few.
hish’ir: to leave behind; to preserve
הִשְׁאִיר
This related form shows the root can name the act by which something remains.
THE PATTERN
A vulnerable community names what remains and places its need before God through intercession.
And he said to cut them down, unless Moses, his chosen, had stood in the breach before him, to turn back his burning from ruining them.Speak your stumbles into the open to one another, and pray over one another, that you may be made whole. The asking of an aligned one, working within, is very strong.THE THREAD
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will call out the name of the LORD before you. I will favor whom I favor, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.Jeremiah’s “supplication” is תְּחִנָּה (teḥinnah, “plea for favor”), from חנן (ḥanan, “to show favor; to be gracious”). Exodus uses that same root in “will be gracious,” joining the plea to the favor it seeks.
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