What Does Jeremiah 14:20 Mean in the King James?
We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
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 confession begins with seeing what is crooked and owns the missing as a direct rupture with the LORD.
THE MEANING
You name your own wrongdoing and the crookedness carried through your fathers before the LORD. The wrongdoing has a lineage, and the confession remains personal and direct: “we have sinned against thee.”
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that inherited wrongdoing erases personal responsibility, or that owning your own wrongdoing requires pretending it began with you.
THE ROOT
חָטָאנוּ
ḥāṭāʾnû
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥṭʾ
To miss, fail, or sin.
“sinned” in this verse is ḥāṭāʾnû. The same root names the act of missing, the missing itself, and the one who misses. The related noun חַטָּאת can also mean an offering for the missing, so the root holds both the failure and what addresses it.
ALSO GROWS
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin; an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
It shows that the root can name both the failure and an offering associated with it.
ḥōṭēʾ: One who sins; a sinner.
חוֹטֵא
The root names not only a deed but the person who commits it, fitting the verse’s “we have sinned.”
יָדַעְנוּ
yādaʿnû
GROWS FROM
ידע
ydʿ
To know or perceive.
The Hebrew verb rendered “acknowledge” is literally “we know.” Confession begins with recognizing what is true, before the verse names the missing as an act against the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
yōdēaʿ: One who knows or perceives.
יֹדֵעַ
This form makes the root’s knowing an active perception, not merely a label for wrongdoing.
yediʿāh: Knowledge or recognition.
יְדִיעָה
This noun shares the root’s consonants and shows the knowing named in the verse as a state of recognition.
רִשְׁעֵנוּ
rišʿēnû
GROWS FROM
רשע
ršʿ
To act wickedly; wrongdoing or guilt.
The root also names the wicked or guilty person, joining the condition to an accountable actor. Here the word is “our wickedness,” followed by “we have sinned”: wrongdoing is named as owned.
ALSO GROWS
rāšāʿ: A wicked or guilty person.
רָשָׁע
It shares the root consonants and names the person associated with the wrongdoing.
rišʿāh: Wickedness or wrongdoing.
רִשְׁעָה
This related form names the wrongdoing itself, echoing the verse’s “our wickedness.”
THE PATTERN
Confession brings wrongdoing into the open before God instead of leaving it hidden.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.Both verses use the Hebrew root חטא for “sinned”: Jeremiah says “we have sinned,” while this verse says “have I sinned.” The shared root keeps the missing relational, it is named as being “against thee,” not merely as a private defect.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us