What Does Jeremiah 5:31 Mean?
The prophets prophesy in lies, and the priests rule under their hands, and my people love it so. And what will you do at its end?
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
The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?THE KEY
The most dangerous falsehood is the one a people loves enough to keep in power.
THE MEANING
False words circulate while religious power is exercised through human hands, and the people love the arrangement. Their desire becomes part of what sustains it. The question meets the reader now: what can this beloved arrangement yield at its end?
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a corrupt religious order lasts only because people are deceived or trapped; this verse says their affection can help sustain it.
THE ROOT
בַּשֶּׁקֶר
bashsheqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
To lie or deal falsely; falsehood.
“lies” in this verse is bashsheqer. The Hebrew frames the prophets’ speech as taking place within falsehood, not merely as an accidental mistake. The word opens onto a whole field of deception that the English adverb can make sound smaller.
ALSO GROWS
sheqer: Lie, falsehood.
שֶׁקֶר
This noun names the falsehood surrounding the prophetic speech.
shaqar: To lie or act deceitfully.
שָׁקַר
The verb shows falsehood as an active way of dealing with others, not only a false statement.
יִרְדּוּ
yirdu
GROWS FROM
רדה
To rule or have dominion, sometimes with the force of treading down.
“rule under their hands” in this verse is yirdu. The verb carries the weight of dominion: the priests are exercising power. The Hebrew says they rule by their hands, making that power concrete and humanly enacted.
ALSO GROWS
radah: To rule or have dominion.
רָדָה
This is the same dominion verb used in Genesis 1:26; here it makes the priests’ authority feel active and direct.
rodeh: One who rules; a ruler.
רֹדֶה
This form names the person exercising dominion, sharpening the verse’s focus on who holds power.
אָהֲבוּ
ahavu
GROWS FROM
אהב
To love, desire, or be attached to.
“love it so” in this verse is ahavu. The people’s love is an active force in the verse, not a detail beside the falsehood. The root reveals that the arrangement endures partly because it attracts and is welcomed.
ALSO GROWS
ahavah: Love or affection.
אַהֲבָה
The noun names the attachment that the verse says the people give to this arrangement.
ahuv: Beloved; one who is loved.
אָהוּב
This form makes the attachment personal: what is loved can become precious enough to protect.
THE PATTERN
Falsehood gains power when hearers prefer its assurances and leaders govern through it.
Who say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the visionaries, "Do not see for us what is straight. Speak to us what is smooth, see what is slippery."For a time will come when they will not bear healthy teaching, but according to their own desires they will heap up teachers for themselves, having itching ears.And this is the sifting, that the light has come into the world, and people love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil.THE THREAD
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your living soul, and with all your might.Jeremiah’s word for “love” comes from אהב (ahav), the same root used here for loving the LORD with the whole heart. The shared root exposes the question beneath Jeremiah’s warning: what has the heart become attached to?
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