What Does Jeremiah 52:31 Mean?
And it came about in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-merodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and brought him out of the prison.
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 it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison,THE KEY
The captive’s head is lifted before he is brought out: release restores standing as well as freedom.
THE MEANING
Being held does not erase a person’s dignity. The verse joins a lifted head to an opened prison: release includes being seen with honor, not only a change of place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that confinement defines the person inside it.
THE ROOT
נָשָׂא אֶת־רֹאשׁ
nasa et-rosh
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasaʾ
To lift, carry, or bear.
“lifted up the head” in this verse is nasa et-rosh. The verb נשא holds lifting and carrying together, so the raised head carries more than a physical gesture: it signals restored standing. The same root can describe bearing a burden, linking elevation with what is carried.
ALSO GROWS
nasiʾ: Leader or prince; a title associated with one raised up.
נָשִׂיא
The shared root connects lifting Jehoiachin’s head with restoring his status.
nasaʾ avon: To bear crookedness; in some contexts, to forgive it.
נָשָׂא עָוֹן
The same verb that lifts can also bear what weighs on someone, widening the image beyond a change in position.
וַיֹּצֵא אֹתוֹ
wayyotse oto
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsaʾ
To go out or come forth; in this causative form, to bring someone out.
“brought him forth” in this verse is wayyotse oto. The wording makes Jehoiachin the one brought out, rather than someone who escapes by his own strength. The verse places another person’s action between confinement and the open door.
ALSO GROWS
yatsaʾ: To go out or come forth.
יָצָא
The base verb names the movement that the verse’s causative form makes possible for another person.
yetziʾah: Going out or departure.
יְצִיאָה
This branch keeps the focus on an actual passage out of confinement.
THE PATTERN
Release restores a person’s standing as it brings them out of confinement.
But you, O LORD, are a shield around me, my weight, and the one who lifts up my head.To open blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and those who settle in darkness out of the prison house.The breath of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the emptied. He has sent me to heal the shattered in heart, to herald release to the captives, and the return of sight for the blind, to send the crushed away into release.THE THREAD
But you, O LORD, are a shield around me, my weight, and the one who lifts up my head.The Hebrew phrase for “lifter up of mine head” echoes Jeremiah’s “lifted up the head”: both use נשא (nasaʾ), to lift or carry. In Jeremiah, that raising comes from a king while the captive is still behind bars; in the psalm, the same image names the one who raises the speaker’s head.
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