What Does Jeremiah 8:10 Mean?
Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who will possess them, for from the least to the greatest each one cuts for gain; from prophet to priest each one works falsehood.
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 give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.THE KEY
Hebrew repeats the root for cutting off gain, making covetousness sound like the act that strips households and fields from others.
THE MEANING
You are shown the cost of greed in real dispossession: wives are given to others and fields pass to new possessors. The verse exposes gain-seeking at every rank and falsehood in the offices that speak for truth, a pattern still present wherever profit and deception govern together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Religious office does not guarantee honesty: the prophet and the priest can both deal falsely when gain has spread through every rank.
THE ROOT
כֻּלּוֹ בֹּצֵעַ בָּצַע
kullō bōṣēaʿ baṣaʿ
GROWS FROM
בצע
b-ṣ-ʿ
To cut off or break off; by extension, to gain, often by taking unjustly.
“cuts for gain” in this verse is kullō bōṣēaʿ baṣaʿ. The Hebrew repeats this root in “each one is cutting gain,” giving covetousness the force of an active practice. That sound echoes the verse’s concrete losses: households and fields are stripped away as gain becomes the pursuit at every level.
ALSO GROWS
bōṣēaʿ: One who gains by taking; a gain-seeker.
בֹּצֵעַ
This participle names what each person is doing, making greed a shared pattern of action rather than only an inward desire.
beṣaʿ: Gain or profit, often unjust gain.
בֶּצַע
This noun is translated “covetousness” in Exodus 18:21, where leaders are to hate such gain.
עֹשֶׂה שָׁקֶר
ʿōśeh šeqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
sh-q-r
To lie, deceive, or act falsely.
“works falsehood” in this verse is ʿōśeh šeqer. The Hebrew says the prophet and priest “do falsehood,” presenting deception as their practice, not merely an occasional false statement. Beside the repeated root for gain, falsehood appears as part of the same public pattern.
ALSO GROWS
šeqer: Falsehood, a lie, or deception.
שֶׁקֶר
The noun names what their actions produce: falsehood becomes the visible product of their dealings.
shāqar: To lie or deceive; to deal falsely.
שָׁקַר
This verb carries the active force of the accusation: deception is something the leaders do.
THE PATTERN
When gain governs those entrusted with judgment and sacred speech, exploitation and falsehood become normal work.
Its heads judge for a bribe, and its priests teach for a price, and its prophets divine for silver. Yet they lean their full weight upon the LORD and say, Is not the LORD in our midst? No harm can come upon us.Her princes within her are like wolves tearing the prey, to pour out blood, and to make living souls perish, to cut for gain.The separated ones also heard all these things, being silver-lovers, and they turned up their noses at him.THE THREAD
Moreover, you shall look out from all the people for men of strength, who stand in awe of God, men of truth, who hate plunder; and set such over them as rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.“Covetousness” here comes from the same root as Jeremiah’s repeated word for gain: בצע (b-ṣ-ʿ), gain acquired by taking. Exodus names hatred of that gain as a quality of trustworthy leaders, revealing the standard Jeremiah’s society has abandoned.
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