What Does Jeremiah 14:5 Mean in the King James?
Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass.
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 Hebrew word for “grass” also carries the act of sprouting, so the hind’s abandonment begins with the land’s failure to bring forth life.
THE MEANING
A hind gives birth in the field and leaves her young because there is no grass. The land’s barrenness reaches into the beginning of life itself, severing the newborn’s first bond.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Leaving does not always begin in indifference; here, the verse names the absence of food as the reason for the hind’s abandonment.
THE ROOT
דֶּשֶׁא
deshe
GROWS FROM
דשא
to sprout or put forth green growth
English “grass” names the growth, while its Hebrew root also carries the act of sprouting. The verse describes not only missing feed but a field with no new green life emerging.
ALSO GROWS
deshe: grass, green growth
דֶּשֶׁא
This is the word for what the hind’s field lacks.
tadshe: let it sprout or bring forth green growth
תַּדְשֵׁא
In Genesis 1:11, this verb describes the earth bringing forth grass; here, that sprouting is absent.
יָלְדָה
yaldah
GROWS FROM
ילד
to bear or bring forth
“calved” in this verse is yaldah. The same root names both the act of bearing and what is born. The hind brings forth new life, but the verse immediately shows that birth alone cannot sustain it when the field has no grass.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: child, one brought forth
יֶלֶד
The noun shares the root of the hind’s act of giving birth.
toledot: generations, those brought forth
תּוֹלְדוֹת
The root extends from one birth to the generations that follow, giving this endangered newborn a place in a larger chain of life.
וְעָזוֹב
veʿazov
GROWS FROM
עזב
to leave or abandon
“forsook” in this verse is veʿazov. This root holds the act of leaving and the condition of being left. The verse names the lack of grass as the cause, keeping the abandonment within the material crisis surrounding the mother and her young.
ALSO GROWS
ʿozēv: one who leaves
עֹזֵב
This form names the one who departs, the mother’s side of the scene.
ʿazuvah: forsaken, abandoned
עֲזוּבָה
This form names the condition of what is left behind, the young one’s side of the scene.
THE PATTERN
When earthly provision fails, suffering reaches beyond people into animal life and the groaning of creation.
Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.THE THREAD
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.The Hebrew word-family behind “grass” here also forms the verb translated “bring forth grass” in Genesis 1:11. There, the earth sprouts green growth; here, its absence reaches a mother and her newborn.
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