What Does Jeremiah 5:1 Mean?
Roam the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and perceive, and seek in her broad places. If you can find a man, if there is any who executes judgment and seeks steadiness, then I will release her.
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
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.THE KEY
The city’s release hinges on finding one person who is still seeking the trustworthiness that makes justice visible.
THE MEANING
The verse places you inside a search: is there even one person who practices justice and keeps pursuing trustworthiness? The pardon of the whole city remains tied to that living presence, so one person’s steady pursuit keeps release possible for many.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a broken community is beyond pardon: the city’s release remains possible if even one person is found practicing justice and pursuing trust.
THE ROOT
אֱמוּנָה
emunah
GROWS FROM
אמן
ʾ-m-n
Firmness and steadiness; what can be trusted and bear weight.
“seeks steadiness” in this verse is emunah. English “truth” can suggest correct statements; אֱמוּנָה (emunah, trust and steadiness) also carries the sense of reliability. The person being sought pursues a quality embodied in life, not merely a correct claim.
ALSO GROWS
amen: Firmly; so it is.
אָמֵן
Its affirmation rests on what is steady and reliable.
ne’eman: Reliable, steady, trustworthy.
נֶאֱמָן
This names the quality the search seeks in a person.
מְבַקֵּשׁ
mevaqqesh from baqash
GROWS FROM
בקש
b-q-sh
To seek, search for, or request.
“seeketh” in this verse is mevaqqesh from baqash. The city’s search in the open places and the person’s own seeking use the same root, בָּקַשׁ (baqash, seek or search). The one being sought is described as someone who is still seeking trustworthiness.
ALSO GROWS
biqqesh: Sought or searched for.
בִּקֵּשׁ
This is the act the searchers undertake across the city.
baqqashah: Request or petition.
בַּקָּשָׁה
The root’s reach from searching to asking gives seeking the shape of an active desire, not passive possession.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
Wholeness and completeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness) with a dual ending: two wholenesses. The verse searches the city’s public spaces to see whether that named wholeness appears in a person who practices justice and seeks trust.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This is the wholeness carried in the city’s name.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
The branch makes wholeness a condition of being intact, the quality the verse searches for within the city.
THE PATTERN
A community’s fate turns on whether justice and trust are practiced in its public life.
And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty aligned ones in the midst of the city, then I will lift all the place for their sake.These are the things you shall do. Speak each man the truth to his neighbor, and judge the judgment of truth and wholeness in your gates.THE THREAD
Behold, his living soul is swollen, and it is not straight within him, but the aligned one shall live by the lean of his full weight.The Hebrew אֱמוּנָה (emunah, trust and steadiness) appears here behind the KJV’s “faith” and in Jeremiah 5:1 behind “truth.” Jeremiah searches for a person pursuing the steadiness that Habakkuk says sustains the life of the just.
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