What Does Jeremiah 16:11 Mean in the King James?
Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
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 repeated “forsaken me” brackets the following and serving: the passage presents idolatry as what abandonment grows into.
THE MEANING
The verse names a pattern alive now: when you forsake the LORD, your steps turn toward other powers, your service gathers there, and your body bows. The repeated “forsaken me” holds those acts inside one departure; the final phrase shows the instruction left unguarded as that departure takes shape.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that devotion is only inward or private: what you follow, serve, bow to, and leave unguarded gives that allegiance a visible shape.
THE ROOT
עָזְבוּ
ʿāzvû
GROWS FROM
עזב
to leave, abandon, or forsake
“forsaken” in this verse is ʿāzvû. The same word appears twice, enclosing the turn toward other gods and the acts of service and bowing. The repeated root makes these acts part of one movement away from the LORD, rather than separate choices.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzav: to leave, abandon, or forsake
עָזַב
This is the verb at the center of the verse, repeated to frame the other actions.
ʿāzûv: abandoned or left behind
עָזוּב
The related form shows the state that follows leaving: something is left without its former keeper or presence.
שָׁמָרוּ
shāmerû
GROWS FROM
שמר
to watch over, guard, or keep
The verse’s “kept” carries the sense of guarding and watching over. The instruction is not merely recited or possessed; it is something the people fail to keep under care as their allegiance turns elsewhere.
ALSO GROWS
shōmēr: a guard, keeper, or watchman
שֹׁמֵר
This branch makes the protective sense of “keep” visible: keeping involves watching over what matters.
mishmeret: a charge, guard duty, or watch
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
The word links keeping with an entrusted responsibility, illuminating what is left unguarded in the verse.
וַיַּעַבְדוּם
vayyaʿavdûm
GROWS FROM
עבד
to work or serve
“served” in this verse is vayyaʿavdûm. This root gathers service and labor into one word-family. Serving other gods is therefore more than a gesture of worship: it places one’s work and service in their hands.
ALSO GROWS
ʿeved: a servant
עֶבֶד
This branch shows how service can describe a relationship of belonging and dependence.
ʿavodah: work or service
עֲבוֹדָה
The shared root joins worshipful service to the work that fills a life.
THE PATTERN
What is followed becomes what is served, and allegiance to it reshapes what is guarded.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.And they cried unto the LORD, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee.No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.THE THREAD
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.The same root, עזב (ʿazav), names forsaking here and in the current verse. Jeremiah 2:13 reveals what the departure turns toward: substitutes that cannot hold the life of the source that was left.
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