What Does Jeremiah 5:5 Mean?
I will go to the great ones and speak to them, for they have perceived the way of the LORD and the judgment of their God. But these together have broken the yoke, and torn away the cords.
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
I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.THE KEY
The verse places intimate knowledge of the LORD’s path beside the deliberate shattering of its bonds, exposing that recognition alone does not bind a person to what they know.
THE MEANING
You can know the LORD’s way and the judgment of your God and still break the yoke and tear away the bonds. The verse holds recognition and refusal together: knowing the path does not erase the choice to break its restraints.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Knowing God’s way automatically keeps you within it.
THE ROOT
יָדְעוּ
yāḏəʿû
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
To know, recognize, or perceive through encounter.
“perceived” in this verse is yāḏəʿû. Yada carries the sense of lived recognition, not detached possession of facts. The verse places that knowing beside broken bonds: what is recognized can still be refused in practice.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: To know, recognize, experience.
יָדַע
The leaders’ knowing is real, which makes their refusal more exposed.
daʿat: Knowledge, recognition.
דַּעַת
This branch keeps knowledge connected to perception, while the verse shows that perception alone does not ensure fidelity.
דֶּרֶךְ
derek
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread or step; to make a way by walking.
The LORD’s way is a track to be trodden, not merely information to possess. The leaders know the path, yet the next clause shows them breaking away from its restraints.
ALSO GROWS
dārak: To tread, step, or walk.
דָּרַךְ
This verb makes the path concrete: a way is something walked.
derek: A road, path, or way.
דֶּרֶךְ
The same root turns the abstract idea of direction into a track marked by movement.
שָׁבְרוּ
shāḇərû
GROWS FROM
שבר
sh-b-r
To break into pieces, shatter.
“broken the yoke” in this verse is shāḇərû. The verb carries the force of shattering, not simply setting a restraint aside. The text does not let the leaders’ knowledge soften the rupture they cause.
ALSO GROWS
shābar: To break or shatter.
שָׁבַר
This is the action applied to the yoke: the restraint is broken apart.
shever: A fracture, breach, or ruin.
שֶׁבֶר
This noun shows the broken state left by the action in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Recognizing what is right does not by itself prevent a person from refusing or violating it.
And I said, Hear and respond, I pray you, heads of Jacob, and you cutters of the house of Israel. Is it not yours to perceive the judgment? Who hate the good and love the evil, who tear their skin away from them, and their flesh from their bones.But that servant, who knew his lord's desire, and did not ready himself nor do it, will be beaten with many blows.So to the one who has seen the beautiful thing to do, and does not do it, falling short is his.THE THREAD
For from the ages I have broken your yoke and torn away your cords. You said, I will not serve, for upon every high hill and under every green tree you lie down as a harlot.Jeremiah 2:20 uses the same Hebrew roots, שבר (shābar, break) and נתק (nātaq, sever), for the yoke and bonds. There the LORD breaks them; here, the leaders break them after knowing the way, making agency the hinge between freedom and refusal.
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