What Does Jeremiah 18:8 Mean in the King James?
If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto 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 same Hebrew word names the nation’s wrongdoing and the calamity facing it: the verse holds the consequence open to change.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks in a live conditional: a harmful course can be turned from, and its threatened consequence is not fixed. The nation turns from its wrongdoing, and God relents from bringing calamity upon it. The repeated Hebrew word for “evil” links the action and its consequence while giving each a different sense.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A judgment once spoken makes its outcome irreversible. Here, the outcome remains responsive to a turn.
THE ROOT
וְנִחַמְתִּי
wə-niḥamtî
GROWS FROM
נחם
n-ḥ-m
The root’s range includes relenting, regretting, and consoling; in this Niphal form, it means to relent.
Here, “repent” names a changed response to the stated condition: God relents from the announced calamity. Elsewhere, this root also supplies words for consolation and for a comforter, giving it a range that reaches beyond regret.
ALSO GROWS
niḥam: relented, regretted
נִחַם
This verb form names the response in the verse.
neḥāmāh: consolation
נֶחָמָה
This noun shows that the root also names comfort amid distress.
menaḥem: comforter
מְנַחֵם
This branch describes one who brings consolation, extending the root’s range beyond relenting.
יָשׁוּב
yāšûḇ
GROWS FROM
שוב
sh-w-b
To return or turn back.
The nation’s turn describes a change of direction, not only a feeling about past behavior. Its movement is paired with God’s relenting, though the two actions come from different roots.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: return, turn back
שׁוּב
This verb names the return from the harmful course in the verse.
teshuvah: return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun makes the root’s sense of changed direction explicit.
meshuvah: turning away, backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch shows that the same root can describe movement away from the right course.
מֵרָעָתוֹ
mē-rāʿātô
GROWS FROM
רעע
r-ʿ-ʿ
To be bad or harmful; רָעָה (rāʿāh) can name wrongdoing, trouble, or calamity.
“evil” in this verse is mē-rāʿātô. The same Hebrew noun appears for the nation’s wrongdoing and the calamity threatened against it. The shared word links action and consequence while its context gives each occurrence a distinct shade.
ALSO GROWS
raʿ: bad, evil
רַע
This form carries the root’s broad sense of badness.
rāʿāh: wrongdoing, trouble, calamity
רָעָה
This noun covers both the nation’s evil and the harm God intends to bring.
hēraʿ: did harm, did evil
הֵרֵעַ
This verbal branch connects the root to harmful action.
THE PATTERN
A threatened outcome can change when those facing it turn from the course that brings it.
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.But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;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 roots: the people turn (שׁוּב, shuv: return) from evil (רָעָה, rāʿāh: wrongdoing), and God relents (נחם, n-ḥ-m: relent) from evil (רָעָה, rāʿāh: calamity). The near-identical pairing makes the conditional movement in Jeremiah unmistakable.
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