What Does Jeremiah 52:1 Mean?
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
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
Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.THE KEY
The king bears a name of alignment with YHWH, and his seat bears the sound of wholeness: authority is framed by a nature greater than its title.
THE MEANING
Your life is held in time, family, and position, yet its name can carry a nature deeper than those coordinates. Zedekiah’s name joins alignment to YHWH, and Jerusalem carries the sound of wholeness; authority stands within that larger measure. The verse speaks now wherever identity, power, and belonging meet.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that a name is only a label gives way here: Zedekiah’s name carries alignment with YHWH as part of the authority he bears.
THE ROOT
צִדְקִיָּהוּ
Tsidqiyyahu
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
Alignment, rightness, justice; joined in the name to Yah (יָהּ, Yah, the divine name element).
“Zedekiah” in this verse is Tsidqiyyahu. The name is commonly understood as “YHWH is righteousness,” carrying tzedek (alignment) into the ruler’s name. English registers it as a royal name, while Hebrew carries a claim about the nature authority bears.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Alignment; justice.
צֶדֶק
It is the central nature carried in Zedekiah’s name.
tsedaqah: Justice expressed in action.
צְדָקָה
It shows that alignment is more than a title; it can take shape in how authority is exercised.
tsaddiq: A person characterized by alignment or justice.
צַדִּיק
It extends the root from an abstract quality to the nature embodied by a person.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
Wholeness, completeness.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. Yerushalayim carries shalom (wholeness) in its name, with the dual ending of the place-name. Beside Zedekiah, the name of alignment, the city-name places rule within the language of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness.
שָׁלוֹם
It reveals the quality carried in the name of the city where Zedekiah rules.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
It shows the root’s sense of an undivided state, enlarging the city-name beyond a geographic label.
THE PATTERN
A scriptural name carries a nature or calling that gives more than a label to the life it names.
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but Abraham, father of multitudes, for I have set you as a father of many nations.And he led him to Jesus. And Jesus, fixing his gaze on him, said, You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas, the rock.He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD his God, and did not bend himself low before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the LORD.THE THREAD
He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD his God, and did not bend himself low before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the LORD.This is the same Zedekiah named in the current verse, making his name readable as a claim about the nature of authority. The verse exposes the gap between that name and lived conduct: a name can declare a nature without guaranteeing its embodiment.
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