What Does Jeremiah 42:7 Mean?
And at the end of ten days, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
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 it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah.THE KEY
Hebrew דָּבָר (dābār, “word” or “matter”) means the arrival after ten days is not only a message but the matter coming into view.
THE MEANING
The wait has a measurable span: ten days pass, and then the LORD’s word arrives. Its Hebrew name can also mean a matter or affair, so what enters the waiting is something to meet, not sound alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A delay does not mean no answer is coming.
THE ROOT
דָּבָר
dābār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
To speak or declare.
The noun can mean both a spoken word and the matter or affair being discussed. That overlap makes the arrival more than sound reaching a listener: the awaited word brings the matter itself into view.
ALSO GROWS
dibbēr: He spoke or declared.
דִּבֵּר
The word that arrives is connected to the act of speaking; it is a communication, not merely an abstract idea.
dəvārīm: Words or matters; also the name of the book of Deuteronomy.
דְּבָרִים
The plural keeps both senses together: what is spoken and what is at issue can be named by the same word.
THE PATTERN
Waiting has a span, and the word or promise meets that span at its appointed point.
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great wages.I stretch myself taut for the LORD, my living soul stretches taut, and in his word I hope.For you have need of bearing up under, so that, having done the will of God, you may carry home the promise.THE THREAD
For thus says the LORD, when seventy years are filled in Babylon, I will visit you and raise up my good word toward you, in bringing you back to this place.“Word” here is the same Hebrew דָּבָר (dābār, “word” or “matter”) as in Jeremiah 42:7. This verse joins an appointed wait to the LORD performing the word, carrying the movement from waiting toward a matter made concrete.
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