What Does Jeremiah 2:20 Mean in the King James?
For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.
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 freed one refuses to serve, then gives herself to another master.
THE MEANING
The yoke over you can be broken, yet freedom does not choose your allegiance for you. You can refuse one form of service and still wander toward other powers, giving yourself over to them in the verse’s stark image of playing the harlot.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The old yoke is broken, so I must be free; the verse shows that release alone does not end bondage.
THE ROOT
אֶעֱבֹד
e'evod
GROWS FROM
עבד
ʿ-b-d
Work, serve, labor.
Beneath the KJV’s “I will not transgress” is אֶעֱבֹד (e’evod), “I will serve”; with the negation, “I will not serve.” This root gathers serving, service, and servant under one seed: the broken yoke leaves the question of service open, and the verse shows desire wandering into another allegiance.
ALSO GROWS
eved: Servant, one who serves.
עֶבֶד
The freed person may refuse one master while becoming a servant to another.
avodah: Work, labor, service.
עֲבֹדָה
The verse turns on what receives service after the yoke is broken.
THE PATTERN
Release breaks an imposed yoke, while what follows reveals the allegiance that still governs the freed person.
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.THE THREAD
And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.The Hebrew verb עבד (ʿ-b-d), meaning “serve” or “work,” is the same root behind Jeremiah’s “I will not transgress” and Exodus’s “ye shall serve God.” The verses place two outcomes beside a broken yoke: service to God, or refusal of that service followed by wandering into other worship.
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