What Does Jeremiah 5:2 Mean?
And though they say, “As the LORD lives,” surely they swear falsely.
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 though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.THE KEY
The sharpest contradiction is that the living LORD is named to certify words already joined to falsehood.
THE MEANING
A sacred confession can sit beside a lie: the mouth says that the LORD lives while the oath serves falsehood. The verse exposes how invoking God does not make a claim true; the gap between declared allegiance and actual speech is already visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that naming the living LORD can make an oath true: sacred language cannot cover a false claim.
THE ROOT
לַשֶּׁקֶר
lashsheqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
sh-q-r
Falsehood, deception; to act falsely.
“falsely” in this verse is lashsheqer. The Hebrew joins the oath to שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, falsehood): they swear “to falsehood.” The line reveals not just inaccurate words, but an oath whose stated allegiance is deception.
ALSO GROWS
sheqer: Falsehood, deceit
שֶׁקֶר
This is the noun named directly in the verse: falsehood is what their oath is joined to.
shaqar: To lie or deal falsely
שָׁקַר
The verb shows falsehood as an action, not merely a mistaken statement.
יִשָּׁבֵעוּ
yishave'u
GROWS FROM
שבע
sh-b-ʿ
To swear, take an oath.
The verse uses the language of binding speech, yet the oath binds the speakers to falsehood. Its solemn form cannot change the character of what they swear.
ALSO GROWS
shevuah: An oath
שְׁבוּעָה
The noun names the binding promise at the center of the verse.
nishba: Swore, took an oath
נִשְׁבַּע
This related verb form shows the act of making speech binding.
חַי
chay
GROWS FROM
חיה
ch-y-h
To live, be alive.
“lives” in this verse is chay. The oath invokes the LORD as living while its own words are attached to falsehood. The contrast makes the confession ring hollow: naming life does not make the speaker’s words alive with truth.
ALSO GROWS
chayah: To live, be alive
חָיָה
This verb carries the same life-root as the word translated liveth.
chayyim: Life
חַיִּים
The related noun makes visible the root’s wider language of life.
THE PATTERN
Speech that invokes God remains answerable to the truth it claims.
In whose eyes the despised one is spurned, yet he gives weight to those in awe of the LORD. He swears to his own harm, and does not shift.Let none of you plan harm in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these are things I hate, says the LORD.But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil.THE THREAD
Let none of you plan harm in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these are things I hate, says the LORD.Zechariah repeats שֶׁקֶר (sheqer, falsehood), the same root at the center of Jeremiah’s false oath. Jeremiah exposes falsehood in the act of swearing; Zechariah shows it also as something the heart can love.
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