What Does Jeremiah 15:17 Mean in the King James?
I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of thy hand: for thou hast filled me with indignation.
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 calls the mockers “laughers,” so the speaker is separated not just from a crowd but from its shared way of taking delight.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you when a crowd’s laughter feels impossible to join because something heavier is holding your attention. The speaker sits alone under God’s hand, filled with indignation; the solitude is charged, not peaceful. The words let both separation and inner heat remain in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being alone does not always mean you are beyond God’s reach; here, solitude is tied to God’s hand.
THE ROOT
מְשַׂחֲקִים
məśaḥăqîm
GROWS FROM
שׂחק
ś-ḥ-q
To laugh or play; in this context, to mock.
The word translated “mockers” comes from the laugh-and-play family. The scene is about more than avoiding cruel speech: the speaker cannot join the group’s shared laughter while carrying this inner burden.
ALSO GROWS
śəḥōq: Laughter, derision.
שְׂחוֹק
It shows how the root can name laughter that becomes the group’s shared expression.
miśḥāq: Play, sport.
מִשְׂחָק
This branch preserves the root’s sense of play, which gives “mockers” a social texture beyond a label for bad people.
בָּדָד
bādād
GROWS FROM
בדד
b-d-d
To be separate or isolated.
“alone” in this verse is bādād. Badad names separation as a condition. The speaker’s sitting apart follows his refusal to enter the group’s gathering, and the verse ties that solitude to God’s hand rather than describing it as a simple retreat.
ALSO GROWS
ləvad: Alone, by oneself.
לְבַד
It carries the same apartness into the everyday idea of being by oneself.
bōdēd: Isolated, solitary.
בּוֹדֵד
This related form makes the root’s sense of separation explicit.
THE PATTERN
A divine burden can withdraw a person from easy company and fill the inner life with costly pressure.
So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:THE THREAD
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.The preceding verse names God’s words as joy in the heart; this verse shows the same encounter alongside solitude and indignation. The joy does not erase the weight, the two occupy the same inner life.
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