What Does Jeremiah 44:15 Mean?
Then all the men who knew that their wives had sent up smoke to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who settled in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
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 all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,THE KEY
This is not just a crowd but an assembled body speaking from constriction; unity alone does not mean wholeness.
THE MEANING
You see an assembled body take shape: the men know their wives have burned incense to other gods, the women stand present, and the people answer together. The verse speaks now wherever a shared voice is mistaken for wholeness: a crowd can speak together while remaining in constriction.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A unified response is always proof that a community has found wholeness.
THE ROOT
קָהָל גָּדוֹל
qahal gadol
GROWS FROM
קהל
q-h-l
To gather or convene as an assembly.
“a great assembly” in this verse is qahal gadol. The word carries more than a headcount: קָהָל (qahal, assembly) names a people as a gathered body. Their answer is public before its content is heard.
ALSO GROWS
hiqhil: To gather or assemble people.
הִקְהִיל
The root moves from the gathered body to the act of bringing people together.
qehillah: Community or congregation.
קְהִלָּה
It keeps the sense of a people formed as a gathered community, not merely a number of individuals.
מִצְרַיִם
Mitzrayim
GROWS FROM
צָרַר
ts-r-r
To bind, press in, or constrict.
The place-name מִצְרַיִם (Mitzrayim, Egypt) carries צַר (tzar, narrowness) with the dual ending ־ַיִם (-ayim, marking “two”): the two narrows. The assembly answers from within that constriction, placing the verse inside scripture’s movement from narrowness toward wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
tzar: Narrow, tight, or constricted.
צַר
This is the narrowness carried in the place-name where the assembly answers.
metsar: A strait or narrow place.
מֵצַר
It gives a concrete image of constriction that clarifies the setting’s deeper pattern.
יָדְעוּ
yadʿu
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive by encounter.
“knew” in this verse is yadʿu. The root spans knowing by encounter and causing something to be known; the men’s knowledge sits beside the crowd’s emerging public answer. The verse does not say that their knowledge alone means agreement.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge or perception.
דַּעַת
This noun shows knowing as a state of awareness, the sense expressed by the men’s knowledge here.
hodiʿa: To inform or make known.
הוֹדִיעַ
This causative form connects knowing with bringing something into public awareness, as the people begin to answer.
THE PATTERN
A gathered community becomes visible through the answer, or silence, it gives together.
When the people saw that Moses lingered to come down from the mountain, the people gathered against Aaron and said to him, Rise, make us gods who will go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we have not known what has come to him.And Elijah came to all the people, and said, How long will you limp on two branches? If the LORD is God, walk after him, but if Baal, then walk after him. And the people answered him not a word.Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was poured together, and most did not know why they had come together.THE THREAD
I will recount your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.The same root קהל (q-h-l, to gather or assemble) underlies the assembly-word in Jeremiah and “congregation” in this Psalm. Jeremiah’s gathered body answers the prophet; here the speaker stands within the gathered body to praise, showing how an assembly becomes the public space where a voice is heard.
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