What Does Jeremiah 8:5 Mean?
Why has this people of Jerusalem turned away in a turning that never ends? They grip deceit; they refuse to turn back.
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
Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.THE KEY
One Hebrew root names both the people’s repeated turning away and the return they refuse, so their crisis is a direction they keep choosing.
THE MEANING
This verse names a present tension: repeated turning away can become a settled direction, while deceit is held tightly as if it were solid ground. Return remains the very movement the verse names, even as it says it is refused.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a repeated pattern has erased the way back dissolves here: the verse names return as the turn being refused.
THE ROOT
שׁוֹבְבָה
shovavah
GROWS FROM
שוב
Turn back, return
“turned away” in this verse is shovavah. English gives us “slidden back,” “backsliding,” and “return,” but the Hebrew repeats one root: the turn away and the turn back belong to one movement. “Perpetual backsliding” is a repeated turn in the opposite direction, while the final “return” names that same turn reversed.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn back or return
שׁוּב
The verse ends with the infinitive לָשׁוּב (lashuv, “to return”), naming the turn the people refuse.
meshubah: A turning away or backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
The same root gives the repeated turning away its name, tying the people’s settled direction to the return they resist.
הֶחֱזִיקוּ
heḥeziqu
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong or firm; in this verb form, take hold or hold fast
“grip deceit” in this verse is heḥeziqu. The language gives deceit a forceful grip: this is something being held in place, not a passing mistake. The verb shares its root with firmness and strength, making the clinging itself part of the condition.
ALSO GROWS
ḥazaq: Be strong or firm
חָזַק
This branch reveals the force behind “hold fast”: the grip has the quality of something made firm.
heḥeziq: Take hold or hold firmly
הֶחֱזִיק
This is the same active holding expressed in the verse, showing deceit being maintained rather than merely encountered.
תַּרְמִית
tarmit
GROWS FROM
רמה
Deceive, beguile
The verse sets the grip on a falsehood, not merely mistaken information: its word for deceit belongs to a verb of deceiving. Paired with “hold fast,” the sentence shows deception being maintained, not simply encountered.
ALSO GROWS
ramah: To deceive or beguile
רָמָה
The verb shows the active character carried by the noun “deceit.”
mirmah: Deceit or treachery
מִרְמָה
This related noun echoes the verse’s word and reinforces that the held thing is an actively misleading account.
THE PATTERN
A repeated turning away is named plainly, while the possibility of return remains alive and is linked with healing and welcome.
Turn back, O turned-away children, and I will heal your turnings-away. Look, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God.Let the wicked leave his way, and the man of crookedness his plans. Let him turn back to the LORD, and he will have compassion on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly release.And he rose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and his inward parts were moved, and he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him.THE THREAD
Turn back, O turned-away children, and I will heal your turnings-away. Look, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God.The same שׁוּב root names turning away and return in both verses. Jeremiah 3:22 adds that backsliding can be healed, making the refusal in 8:5 the rejection of a turn linked with healing.
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