What Does Jeremiah 17:10 Mean in the King James?
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
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 hidden heart and the visible harvest belong to one account: what is within takes shape as a path and ripens into the fruit by which a life is measured.
THE MEANING
The LORD searches your heart and tests what lies beneath the parts of you others can see. Your inward direction takes shape in the path you walk and bears fruit in your actions; the verse says your life is met according to that path and its yield.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that private motives are unknowable or disconnected from your actions does not hold here: the LORD searches within and reckons with the fruit of your life.
THE ROOT
חָקַר
chaqar
GROWS FROM
חקר
To search deeply or investigate until what is hidden is uncovered.
“search” in this verse is chaqar. This verb names more than a passing glance; it is an investigation that reaches what is buried. Paired with the testing of the reins, it makes the inward self the site of examination, even when no one else can see it.
ALSO GROWS
chaqar: To search or investigate.
חָקַר
This is the verb used in the verse: the LORD’s attention reaches into the hidden heart.
cheqer: Inquiry, investigation, or depth.
חֵקֶר
This related form carries the search toward what is deep and not immediately visible.
דְּרָכָיו
derakhav
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread or step, making or following a path.
The word for a person’s ways grows from a root meaning to tread: conduct is a path repeatedly stepped into being. The verse’s measure is therefore not an abstract intention but the route a life makes.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: A way, road, or path.
דֶּרֶךְ
The person’s ‘ways’ are a path of movement, giving lived conduct the shape of a route.
darakh: To tread or step.
דָּרַךְ
The action behind the word shows how a path is made through repeated steps.
פְּרִי
peri
GROWS FROM
פרה
To bear fruit, increase, or produce.
Fruit presents deeds as the yield of a life, not as isolated points. The same root can name both becoming fruitful and what is produced, linking the visible harvest to a process already underway.
ALSO GROWS
parah: To bear fruit or become fruitful.
פָּרָה
This verb links the harvest in the verse to a process of producing over time.
peri: Fruit or yield.
פְּרִי
This is the visible result the verse sets beside a person’s path and deeds.
THE PATTERN
The hidden inward life is seen clearly, and the fruit of a person’s path reveals what that life produces.
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.Psalm 139:1 uses the same Hebrew verb חָקַר (chaqar, to search deeply or investigate) as Jeremiah 17:10. Here the searching is spoken personally: the one examined is already known, making the scrutiny feel complete rather than distant.
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