What Does Jeremiah 42:20 Mean?
For you have wandered in your living souls, when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us to the LORD our God; and according to every word the LORD our God says, so declare it to us, and we will make it.
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
For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.THE KEY
The request for God’s direction can become a way of wandering when the living self has already reserved the right to refuse the answer.
THE MEANING
You can ask for God’s direction while keeping your own decision beyond its reach. The Hebrew places the deception in your living self, so the division reaches the whole person, not thought alone. The answer you ask to hear already meets the intention you carry.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that asking for guidance proves you are willing to follow it.
THE ROOT
הִתְעֵיתֶם
hit'item
GROWS FROM
תעה
To wander, err, or go astray.
“have wandered” in this verse is hit'item. The Hebrew form carries the picture of wandering or erring within yourselves. The split is already inside the person asking: the request and the intended refusal pull in different directions.
ALSO GROWS
ta'inu: We have gone astray.
תָּעִינוּ
Isaiah uses this form for wandering from one’s way, showing the same root beneath this inward self-deception.
to'eh: One who wanders or is lost.
תֹּעֶה
The root can name the wandering self itself, not only a mistaken choice.
בְּנַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם
b'nafshotekhem
GROWS FROM
נפש
The living self, life, or person.
“living souls” in this verse is b'nafshotekhem. The Hebrew word beneath “hearts” is nefesh, the living self. The phrase places the deception in the whole person who asks for God’s word, not in an abstract inner compartment.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living soul or self.
נֶפֶשׁ
Genesis describes the living creature as a nefesh, linking this phrase to the whole living being.
veyinnaphesh: And may be refreshed.
וְיִנָּפֵשׁ
The same root can describe a living self finding rest, showing how fully it concerns the person’s lived condition.
שְׁלַחְתֶּם
shelachtem
GROWS FROM
שלח
To send forth, release, or let go.
“sent” in this verse is shelachtem. The word for sending carries the wider sense of releasing or letting go. They send a messenger to bring God’s answer, while the verse exposes the distance between sending for an answer and releasing one’s own fixed course.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Sent forth; the name of the waters of Shiloah.
שִׁלֹּחַ
The name preserves the sense of what is sent forth, echoing the answer they ask to have carried back to them.
shallach: Send away; let go.
שַׁלַּח
The same root speaks in “Let my people go,” revealing release inside the word translated “sent.”
THE PATTERN
Seeking instruction while withholding readiness to follow it turns hearing into self-deception.
But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon the rock.And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.THE THREAD
All of us like sheep have wandered; each has turned to his own way, and the LORD has caused the crookedness of us all to fall upon him.Isaiah uses the same תעה root for wandering astray, so this verse names the inner form of that drift: asking for a word while continuing along one’s own way. Both show how a person can be lost even while speaking as though guidance is welcome.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us