What Does Jeremiah 42:5 Mean?
Then they said to Jeremiah, Let the LORD be a witness of truth and steadiness between us, if we do not make it according to every word for which the LORD your God sends you to 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
Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us.THE KEY
The oath turns a word they have yet to hear into a measure their own actions must meet.
THE MEANING
Your promise has content before the answer arrives: it binds you to do what is sent to you. Calling the LORD a witness places your words under steady truth, while your later actions reveal whether your promise is steady too.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a sincere promise is complete once it is spoken; here, the promise points beyond itself to doing what is received.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁלָחֲךָ
yishlachakha
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
shalach
Send forth, release, let go.
“send” in this verse is yishlachakha. The answer is not first invented by the people; it is sent to them, and they pledge to let that message determine their action. Shalach keeps the movement visible: a word travels outward, is received, and shapes what the hearer does.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: The name associated with the pool of Siloam; sent waters.
שִׁלֹחַ
The same root links sending with a movement that restores sight, illuminating how a message received can make something newly visible.
shulchan: A table; provision extended outward.
שֻׁלְחָן
The branch carries the sense of what is sent out to be received, echoing the word sent to the people.
עֵד
ed
GROWS FROM
עוּד
ud
Attest, testify, affirm again.
They ask for a witness who can hold their words to account: the oath has a future edge, not just ceremonial weight. The root’s sense of attesting makes the promise something that can be recalled and tested against what they do.
ALSO GROWS
edut: Testimony or witness.
עֵדוּת
The spoken pledge becomes testimony that can be compared with later action.
he'id: To testify or bear witness.
הֵעִיד
The witness is present to affirm what was promised, keeping their words answerable.
נֶאֱמָן
ne'eman
GROWS FROM
אמן
aman
Be firm, steady, reliable.
Ne’eman carries the sense of steadiness and reliability. Alongside “true” (אֱמֶת, emet), it frames the LORD as a witness whose word holds, while the speakers’ own steadiness remains to be shown in what they do.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Trust; leaning your full weight on what is steady.
אֱמוּנָה
The oath places the speakers’ future conduct on the reliability they invoke.
Amen: An affirmation that something is so.
אָמֵן
The pledge is more than sound: its truth is borne out by what follows.
THE PATTERN
A pledge to hear becomes true through action that matches the word received.
Draw near, and hear all that the LORD our God will say, and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you. We will hear and respond, and we will do it.They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear and respond to your words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart walks after their cut-off gain.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Whether it be good or whether it be harm, we will hear and respond to the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send you, that it may go well with us, when we hear and respond to the voice of the LORD our God.The same root, שׁלח (shalach, send forth), returns: first the LORD sends Jeremiah’s message to the people, then they say they send Jeremiah to the LORD. The next verse names their promised response as obeying the voice, completing the movement from a word sent to action pledged.
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