What Does Jeremiah 15:7 Mean in the King James?
And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.
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 says, in effect, “I will scatter them with a scattering fork,” making dispersion the verse’s governing image.
THE MEANING
The verse places before you a severe verdict: those who will not turn from their paths are scattered, bereaved of children, and destroyed. The winnowing image does not soften the loss named here. Its final words put the unturned way beside the devastation that follows.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a destructive course can remain unchanged forever without consequence.
THE ROOT
וָאֶזְרֵם
vāʾezrēm
GROWS FROM
ז־ר־ה
z-r-h
to scatter or disperse; to winnow
The KJV preserves a Hebrew verb and its related instrument in “fan them with a fan.” Both grow from זרה, so the people are scattered by an implement named from the act itself: a winnowing image carried into national dispersion.
ALSO GROWS
zārâ: to winnow; to scatter
זָרָה
This verb names the action applied to the people in the verse.
mizreh: a winnowing fork or shovel
מִזְרֶה
The instrument shares the verb’s root, joining the tool and the scattering in one image.
שָׁבוּ
shāvû
GROWS FROM
ש־ו־ב
sh-w-b
to turn back or return; in a causative form, to bring back
“return” in this verse is shāvû. The people have not turned back. The same root can describe someone returning and another bringing that person back, joining turning and restoration in one word family.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return; turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun carries the return that the people in the verse have not made.
hēshîv: to bring back; restore
הֵשִׁיב
This causative form shows the same root describing restoration as well as a person’s return.
THE PATTERN
When a destructive path remains unturned, it leads toward loss; turning back opens a way toward life and gathering.
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.If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.THE THREAD
Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.The root שׁוּב (shuv, “turn or return”) that names the people’s refusal in verse 7 appears repeatedly here. The KJV renders it as both “return” and “bring thee again,” revealing the root’s link between turning back and being restored.
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