What Does Jeremiah 1:7 Mean in the King James?
But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The sender, not the speaker’s age, determines where the voice goes and what it carries.
THE MEANING
When “I am a child” feels decisive, the sending comes with a destination and a charge to speak. The sender establishes the voice’s reach and its message; age does not set either limit.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that youth or inexperience automatically disqualifies a voice from carrying a consequential word.
THE ROOT
אֶשְׁלָחֲךָ
ʾešlaḥăḵā
GROWS FROM
שׁ־ל־ח
š-l-ḥ
Send, send forth, release.
“send” in this verse is ʾešlaḥăḵā. The Hebrew sending carries movement toward a destination, with the sense of releasing someone into it. The commission is both dispatch and release: the sender determines where the voice goes and what it is sent to do.
ALSO GROWS
shaluaḥ: Sent, dispatched.
שָׁלוּחַ
The sent one carries a mission received from the sender; the movement is not self-appointed.
shilluach: Sending away, dismissal, release.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This branch makes the release within “send” audible: the one sent is let go toward a purpose.
תְּדַבֵּר
tedabber
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
Speak, utter.
The verb for speaking and the noun for a word or matter grow from the same root. Hebrew holds utterance and what is uttered together: here, the voice carries the matter it is commanded to speak.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The spoken word is held together with the matter it expresses, linking Jeremiah’s voice to the content entrusted to him.
dibbur: Speech, utterance.
דִּבּוּר
This noun names the act of speaking itself, echoing the verse’s focus on a voice carrying words.
THE PATTERN
The sent voice carries words supplied and authorized by the one who sends.
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.THE THREAD
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.The word translated “send” in both verses is שָׁלַח (shalach), “send forth; release.” In Exodus, the sent voice is aimed toward Egypt (מִצְרַיִם, Mitzrayim, “the two narrows”) to bring people out; Jeremiah’s commission carries that same root of release into its destination.
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