What Does Jeremiah 18:10 Mean in the King James?
If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
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’s word for “repent” means relent: when a people refuses to hear and respond, the good already spoken can change course.
THE MEANING
The good God declares for a people is real, yet responsive to how that people meets his voice. When a people persists in evil and refuses to hear and respond, God relents from the good he has spoken. The promise and its withdrawal are both held in the open.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s announced good is an unconditional guarantee, no matter how a people responds.
THE ROOT
נִחַמְתִּי
niḥamtî
GROWS FROM
נ־ח־ם
n-ḥ-m
To be moved or relent; in another Hebrew verb form, to comfort.
“repent” in this verse is niḥamtî. Here, the form means “I will relent,” a change in the course previously announced. The same root also yields “comfort,” keeping responsiveness within the word-family without making this verse a confession of wrongdoing.
ALSO GROWS
niḥam: He relented or was moved.
נִחַם
This is the verb form behind the verse’s change from declared good to withdrawal.
niḥēm: He comforted.
נִחֵם
This other form from the same root reveals a word-family that holds both comfort and relenting.
שְׁמֹעַ
shəmoaʿ
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, and heed.
The Hebrew says the people do not “hear” God’s voice, where English says they do not “obey” it. The word carries listening into response: the failure is not merely missing information but refusing to answer what is heard.
ALSO GROWS
shāmaʿ: To hear or listen.
שָׁמַע
This is the root verb whose sense can extend from hearing to heeding.
shemuʿah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch keeps the root’s connection to what reaches the ear and calls for a response.
לְהֵיטִיב
leheytiv
GROWS FROM
י־ט־ב
y-ṭ-b
To be good or go well; to do good.
“Benefit” here is expressed as “to do good,” not as an abstract reward. The word makes the promised good an action toward the people, an action that the verse says can be withdrawn.
ALSO GROWS
ṭov: Good.
טוֹב
This is the basic “good” in the same word-family as the promised benefit.
heṭiv: To do good or benefit.
הֵיטִיב
This verb names good as something enacted, clarifying what God had said he would do for the people.
THE PATTERN
God’s spoken course meets the people’s response: hearing, turning, and doing shape what follows.
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.THE THREAD
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.Jonah uses the same Hebrew root, נ־ח־ם (n-ḥ-m), for God’s relenting after the people turn from their evil way. Jeremiah shows the other side of that responsiveness: when a people refuses to hear and respond, the good already spoken can be withdrawn.
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