What Does Jeremiah 7:14 Mean?
Therefore I will do to this house, which is called by my name, in which you lean your full weight upon, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
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
Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.THE KEY
Being called by God’s name does not make a house immune when people have made the house their security.
THE MEANING
The place you trust in can bear God’s name and still be subject to God’s judgment. What is given can be brought down, as Shiloh was.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that a place becomes untouchable simply because it bears God’s name or was given by God.
THE ROOT
בֹּטְחִים
botchim
GROWS FROM
בטח
batach
To trust, feel secure, or be confident.
“in which you lean your full weight upon” in this verse is botchim. The verb names the security people locate in the house, not merely respect for it. A related word can mean security itself, exposing how the house has become what they rely on for safety.
ALSO GROWS
betach: Security; safety; securely.
בֶּטַח
The branch makes clear that their trust in the house is a felt refuge, a source of safety.
mivtach: Confidence; refuge; that in which one trusts.
מִבְטָח
It carries trust into the idea of a refuge, bringing the verse’s misplaced confidence into focus.
נִקְרָא
niqra
GROWS FROM
קרא
qara
To call, summon, or proclaim.
The house bears a name called over it: שֵׁם (shem), name as nature and identity. That name marks what the house claims to embody, but the call does not make the structure itself a guarantee of safety.
ALSO GROWS
miqra: A reading or convocation.
מִקְרָא
The word carries calling into a gathered or spoken naming, echoing the name called over the house.
qeri'ah: A calling or reading.
קְרִיאָה
It keeps the act of calling visible: the house is identified by the name spoken over it.
נָתַתִּי
natatti
GROWS FROM
נתן
To give, set, or place.
The verse calls the place something God gave and set among the people, not something they control. Its gifted status does not make it immune; the giver remains able to act upon it.
ALSO GROWS
mattanah: A gift.
מַתָּנָה
The place is presented as something given, not as a permanent guarantee possessed by its recipients.
natun: Given; set; placed.
נָתוּן
This form recalls that the place was set among the people by God’s act, and can still be acted upon by God.
THE PATTERN
A sacred place cannot guarantee safety simply because God’s name or presence has been associated with it.
Do not lean your full weight upon lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, the temple, the temple of the LORD, these are.He let go of the dwelling place of Shiloh, the tent he settled among humankind.Look, your house is left to you, empty.THE THREAD
I say to the LORD, my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him I lean my full weight.The Hebrew verb for “trust” comes from בטח (batach) in both verses. Jeremiah exposes confidence lodged in the house; the psalm uses the same word for confidence lodged in God, revealing how much depends on where security rests.
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