What Does Jeremiah 12:15 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
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 same God who plucks them out names compassion as the force that returns each person to a particular place of belonging.
THE MEANING
Being uprooted does not erase the possibility of return: compassion brings each person back to a heritage and a land. The promise speaks of restoration as personal, with each one returned to a place of belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that displacement has permanently erased your place is undone here: being uprooted is not the final word.
THE ROOT
וְרִחַמְתִּים
wə-riḥamtîm
GROWS FROM
רחם
To have compassion; the root is also found in the Hebrew word for womb.
The verse’s “have compassion” comes from רחם (r-ḥ-m), whose noun רֶחֶם (reḥem) means “womb.” English separates compassion from that word, while Hebrew joins them in a root that can evoke life-bearing tenderness gathering the uprooted back.
ALSO GROWS
reḥem: Womb.
רֶחֶם
This noun shares the root’s consonants, רחם, and brings a womb’s sheltering, life-bearing image alongside the compassion that restores.
raḥămîm: Compassion, mercies.
רַחֲמִים
This noun carries the same root consonants and names the compassion promised to those who have been plucked out.
raḥûm: Compassionate, merciful.
רַחוּם
This adjective shares the root consonants and describes the quality of the one who returns each person to their place.
THE PATTERN
Compassion does not stop at rescue from displacement; it returns each person to a place of belonging.
That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.THE THREAD
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,Jeremiah’s “have compassion” comes from רחם (r-ḥ-m), the same root in רַחוּם (raḥûm), rendered “merciful” here. The connection presents compassion as a named quality of the one who restores.
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