What Does Jeremiah 11:21 Mean in the King James?

Therefore thus saith the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand:

Jeremiah 11:21 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

The threat reaches the prophet’s whole living self because silencing the voice is made to mean killing the life that carries it.

THE MEANING

When your speech bears the LORD’s nature, this verse shows the answer it can meet: a demand for silence backed by a threat on your life. The terms are stated plainly, stop prophesying in the LORD’s name, or die by the speakers’ hand.

THE ROOT

נַפְשְׁךָ

nafsh'kha

GROWS FROM

נ־פ־שׁ

n-p-sh

The living self; a living being or embodied life.

“Life” here is the whole living self, as in “living soul.” The same root also forms ⁨נָפַשׁ⁩ (naphash, to rest or be refreshed), placing an echo of restoration beside a threat to extinguish the living person.

ALSO GROWS

nephesh chayyah: Living soul; living being.

נֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה

Genesis calls the formed human a living soul; the threatened “life” is the whole living person, not an abstraction.

naphash: To rest; to be refreshed.

נָפַשׁ

This verbal form carries the sense of rest or refreshment within the same root family, an echo of restored life beside the threat.

THE PATTERN

Power tries to govern prophetic speech by attaching its continuation to the speaker’s bodily survival.

But prophesy not again any more at Beth-el: for it is the king’s chapel, and it is the king’s court.

Amos 7:13 · KJVThe command treats the king’s court as grounds to silence prophetic speech.

And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

Acts 4:18 · KJVThe command attempts to stop testimony by forbidding speech in Jesus’ name.

And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

Acts 5:40 · KJVThe beating makes the bodily threat behind the demand for silence explicit.

THE THREAD

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 2:7 · KJV

Jeremiah’s “thy life” is ⁨נֶפֶשׁ⁩ (nephesh, living self), the same word Genesis renders “living soul.” The shared root makes the threat concrete: its target is the whole living person.

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