What Does Jeremiah 15:15 Mean in the King James?
O LORD, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and revenge me of my persecutors; take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke.
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 verse holds God’s remembrance and the speaker’s demand for vengeance together: patience does not erase the injury.
THE MEANING
You are known by God; the plea asks that this knowing take the form of remembrance, attention, and justice. You name what has happened: for God’s sake, reproach has fallen on you, and you ask for vengeance against those pursuing you. The long wait does not cancel the injury or the cry for redress.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God’s patience means the persecuted are forgotten or that their demand for redress is out of place.
THE ROOT
זָכְרֵנִי
zokhreni
GROWS FROM
זכר
זכר (zāḵar): remember, call to mind, mention.
The root זכר (zāḵar, remember) also gives words for remembrance and bringing something to mind. Here, “remember me” asks for the suffering person to be held in active regard, not merely stored as information.
ALSO GROWS
zāḵar: Remember, call to mind.
זָכַר
This verb is the seed of the speaker’s plea to be remembered.
zikkārôn: Remembrance, memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps someone or something present to attention, giving “remember me” a sense beyond bare recollection.
hizkîr: Mention, bring to remembrance.
הִזְכִּיר
This branch shows remembrance as something brought forward into attention.
וּפָקְדֵנִי
u-fāqdenî
GROWS FROM
פקד
פקד (pāqad): attend to, muster, appoint; here, visit or attend to me.
The root behind “visit” also carries the sense of attending to or mustering. The plea moves from being remembered to receiving God’s direct attention.
ALSO GROWS
pāqad: Attend to, muster, appoint.
פָּקַד
Its range connects visiting with turning attention toward someone and responding to their condition.
pequddāh: Charge, oversight, visitation.
פְּקֻדָּה
This noun shares the root and makes the sense of care or oversight within “visit me” visible.
לְאֹרֶךְ אַפְּךָ
leʾorekh ʾappekha
GROWS FROM
ארך
ארך (ʾārakh): be long, extend, lengthen.
“longsuffering” in this verse is leʾorekh ʾappekha. The root ארך (ʾārakh, be long) joins with אַף (ʾaf, nose or anger) in an expression for being slow to flare. The speaker asks not to be swept away by that delay while placing the injury before God.
ALSO GROWS
ʾārōkh: Long.
אָרֹךְ
This adjective carries the root’s basic sense of length into the expression about anger taking time to flare.
heʾerikh: Lengthened, prolonged.
הֶאֱרִיךְ
This verb shares the root’s consonants and shows length as something extended.
THE PATTERN
The cry of the afflicted remains before God and calls for attention and judgment.
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?THE THREAD
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.Jeremiah’s “remember” and Exodus’s “remembered” share זכר (zāḵar, remember). In both verses, remembrance stands beside suffering: the cry is heard, and what is remembered remains present for God’s attention.
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