What Does Jeremiah 11:1 Mean in the King James?
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
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 word that “comes” is both spoken address and the matter itself: what reaches Jeremiah already carries reality within it.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s word reaches Jeremiah as an utterance that is already speaking. The verse places you at the threshold of an address whose meaning unfolds as it is heard.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s word is only information about reality: here, “word” also names a matter, and the word arrives as a speaking presence.
THE ROOT
הַדָּבָר
ha-dāḇār
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; a word or matter spoken of.
Davar can name both a spoken word and a matter or affair. The English “word” can sound like information alone, while the Hebrew holds speech and substance together.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verb makes the word an utterance: what reaches Jeremiah is already saying.
devarim: words; matters or affairs
דְּבָרִים
The same root names both what is said and what is at stake, giving the arriving word substance.
הָיָה
hāyâ
GROWS FROM
ה־י־ה
h-y-h
To be, become, or come into being.
“came” in this verse is hāyâ. The Hebrew phrase can be read as “the word that was to Jeremiah.” The word’s arrival carries the sense of becoming present, not only traveling from one place to another.
ALSO GROWS
hayah: was; became; happened
הָיָה
The word is described through being and becoming, so its arrival reads as presence taking shape.
yihyeh: he or it will be
יִהְיֶה
This form keeps the root’s connection to what comes to be, echoing the word’s becoming present to Jeremiah.
THE PATTERN
The divine word arrives as living utterance: it speaks, brings forth, and lays reality open.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.THE THREAD
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.The Hebrew word translated “word” here is davar, the same word at the center of Jeremiah 11:1; it can also name a matter or affair. Psalm 33:6 joins that word with ruach, breath, opening the arriving word as voiced, reality-bearing presence.
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